Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel
by Saemon
Summary: Cursed mere hours after his birth to wander the world as a Kitsune Hanyou, Naruto Uzumaki is forced to find light in a cruel world. Is it possible to live life as a half-demon and earn the acceptance of those around you. If so, is love also possible?
1. Prologue

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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PLEASE READ THIS INFOMATION BEFORE CONTINUING.

Well after years of Romance Novel writing, it seems my younger sister has coned me into writing a fanfiction for her. Well... I have been writing this fanfiction for her for a few months now but she just asked me to upload it to about two days ago. Now the first thing that I want to make clear is that I don't trust many people since one of my most important novels I wrote was stolen from me by someone who use to be very close to my heart, and that submitting something I wrote even though it was only fanfiction, was extremely hard for me and I hope that someone out their doesn't prove my fears to be correct by stealing any part of this story for their own use.

Anyway, away from the past. I introduce to you the story for Naruto that I have been writing on request from my little sister. I originally wanted to go off on a complete tangent from the originally manga but my sister requested that I stay fairly close to begin with and have just one big change that impacts everything latter on. After talking with her we came to an agreement that I should have Naruto as a Kitsune Hanyou, and illustrate his life as a half-demon. Which is this story right here, which is currently at 108,268 words I just have to upload the rest of the chapters which I will on weekly updates.

Now most of you will really dislike my writing style as it is heavy on character development, which is a must for classic romance novels. However, after a little research from reading other fanfictions I believe I have significantly changed my writing style enough to what seems like a 'Fanfiction Style'. Anyway, if anyone has any questions about this fiction or my life you are free to enquire as you wish and I will do my best to reply.

Reviews are very welcomed as they will be a good indication on what the public thinks of my works.

Anyway, there was more that I wanted to say but I think I'll just leave it for the coming chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot in my fanfiction.

**Updated - Reviewed, Proofread, and Edited by HypoSoc  
(Thank you!)**

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Prologue

It came at midnight with little warning. Like a force of nature, it would destroy everything in its path until its anger was satisfied. And like any other force of nature, the Nine Tailed Fox seemed completely out of control as it leveled the landscape around it. Not a single thought was spared on the destruction it was causing. Its chakra was a bright blood and littered with emotions: emotions of hatred, fury and malice. The chakra blasted from the creature in impossible, knocking everything around it as if they were mere specks of dust caught in a hurricane.

Slowly walking towards the village, it began to thrash about even more then before. This caused its nine tails to further demolish the flora around it. Every Konoha ninja available above genin rank gathered at the south gate to defend there home against the invader. Although few that had gathered there were sure they could stall it, let alone defeat it.

Quicker then a blink of the eye, every Anbu and their Captain appeared before the nervous group of shinobi. It was expected that they would be this way, breaking the shinobi code that dictates that a ninja must have no emotions. The most cold-hearted assassins would cower in fear at the killer intent the beast was blasting at the populace. The pressure was so great that a great many ninja were having trouble breathing and a few were even reaching for their weapons preparing to take their own life to end the suffering, to end the pure rage that was beating down upon them.

The Anbu Captain also felt the pressure of the beast's enormous amount of fury. It was like there was an immeasurable amount of weight bearing down on his very soul, crushing it, grinding it into dust. Glancing around, he noticed that many of his fellow shinobi were also suffering heavily. If anyone were to look at the Anbu gathered, many would think that were unaffected by the demon's killer intent, as their masked faces showed nothing. The Captain knew his men well and could tell from the subtle movements of their bodies that they were terrified.

With a long sad sigh the Anbu Captain looked up into the eyes of those gathered before him. He knew many would die before the night was out. They all knew it too. Letting out another sigh he addressed all those in front of him: "Fellow shinobi! We of the Village Hidden in the Leaves have stood for over 100 years and fought many great battles which raged on for many years that have left both sides wounded. But, after every war, who is the first to regain their standings? Who is the first to launch a counter-strike that outsmarts our enemies? Who is the village that has the finest and strongest shinobi and is the greatest of the great five hidden villages?"

The ninja around the Captain looked up as he spoke those words. They weren't completely awe-inspiring, but it reminded some, especially those who had fought in wars, of what they were here for. They were here to defend their country, their village, their home. The Captain was pleased that he had at least gained their. "We are! We are the village that has survived through the toughest challenges and disasters and still lived. This is just one more challenge that we the ninja from the village Hidden in the Leaves must face, and we will face it head-on with courage and without regret! The Fourth Hokage has designed a way to stop the beast, but it will take time. Our mission is to stall the demon as long as possible so that we can give the Fourth enough time to finish his final preparations. We are shinobi and today we fight for our home! We fight for our way of life! We fight with the will of fire itself and for the future of our village so we will win! FOR KONAHA!" As the Anbu Captain yelled, he reached into his weapon pouch and withdrew three kunai in each hand, and ran in the direction of the approaching kitsune. The Anbu and his fellow ninja followed, all with a small look of determination and pride in their eyes.

The Fourth Hokage looked over his village from his office for the last time. All that he treasured, all that he loved, and all that he held precious was within this small part of the world. He was certainly willing to give up his life for it to remain safe. He looked over to the raging beast that his fellow shinobi were trying to keep the beast at bay. But if anything, they just angered it more. He looked at the fallen and falling shinobi and realized that he had better hurry up before it was too late and the village fell. The Fourth knew that he could never defeat the beast, but he could stop it. He could seal it away. Grabbing what he needed and his most precious object in the world he jumped out of the window, landing on the quickly summoned great toad boss, Gamabunta. He continued to observe the fox while Gamabunta placed his webbed hand on his sword.

Slowly pulling back the covers, he glanced down with eyes full of love and traces of sadness and regret at his most precious thing in the world, even more so than his beloved wife: his son. The little blond boy was silently sleeping in his father's arms without a care for or knowledge of the world around him. Silently the Fourth let a tear drop from his eye as he realized of what he was about to do to his son. The Fourth slowly began to perform the sequences of hand-signs needed for his latest and last jutsu. Before his jutsu was finished, however, he felt two very familiar chakra signatures heading towards him. He turned his head slowly and gave a sad smile to another two of the precious people in his life: his predecessor, Sarutobi, and his sensei, Jiraiya.

"Lord Hokage! Please reconsider this and let another do it for you. I would gratefully give up my life to allow you to live with your son. I am old and have already lived a happy life, yours has barely started." Sarutobi pleaded with the man whom he now saw as a grandson.

"Hey old man! What have I told you about calling me 'Lord Hokage?' It makes me sound old. And no, I cannot allow you to do it for me. I am the only one capable of performing this jutsu, and I will not have another be sacrificed instead of me. That's the Hokage's job. It's what I decided. I could never defeat the fox, but by sacrificing my life I can seal it. I will not allow anything to harm those precious to me." Sarutobi looked at his successor and gave a small chuckle.

"You know, Minato, you haven't changed a bit and you haven't allowed the title of Hokage to go to your head either. Regardless, I still should take your place. Think of your son. He will need you." Sarutobi again pleaded with Minato, but it looked like nothing would change his mind.

"You should listen to him, gaki, he's older then you and knows what he's on about. The villagers will not take this lightly and are bound to think of your son as the fox instead of the container. They will need your reassurance and he will need you as well." Jiraiya stepped forward to assist his sensei, as they both knew of the problems that this would cause Minato's son later on in life.

Minato shook his head at his 'father' and 'grandfather' and gave a small sigh before answering them. "You both should have a little more faith in the villagers, they will only see Naruto as a hero and their savior. They could never think so little of the one that protects them all day, every single day. And besides, I need you, Sarutobi, to tell Kushina-chan that I'm sorry, and that I love her with all my heart and soul." At this point both Jiraiya and Sarutobi faced their heads down to the ground and Minato instantly knew something was wrong. "What? What is it?"

Sarutobi slowly lifted his head and looked into his 'grandson's' eyes, almost breaking down into tears. "It's… it's Kushina. She… she died shortly after childbirth. The strain of the fox's charka in the village was just too much for her body. I'm sorry, Minato, she's gone." Sarutobi continued to look at his 'grandson's' eyes and could see a vast array of emotions flowing endlessly.

Minato looked down and his tears began to freefall from his face. Not only had his wife died but Naruto would lose both his mother and his father on his birth-night. Neither of them would get to raise him, teach him morals and the ways of a ninja, or see him grow up and possibly marry. They wouldn't get to see their grandchildren either. A massive roar from the fox quickly ended his thoughts and he turned quickly back to face it. It seemed to have noticed him and Gamabunta and actually looked excited. But Minato wouldn't allow it any satisfaction. Quickly finishing the last two hand-signs he turned to Jiraiya and Sarutobi once more and said:

"So long father, grandfather. I shall see you on the other side when you join my wife and me. Take good care of my son… and make sure he is loved and looked after well like he deserves." Turning to his son, woken thanks to the roar, Minato wiped the tears from his face and gave Naruto a gentle kiss on the forehead. He ruffled his thin, blond locks. Minato smiled at his son's small little chuckle, but that quickly turned to a frown when he felt his jutsu take hold. To him, it felt like his soul was being stabbed from behind. However, judging by the fox's roars, it felt even worse.

The beast's howling intensified as its charka began swirling around with force strong that blew away every ninja around it, as well as many houses and trees. They were like sand in a hurricane. Suddenly, a bright, white light surrounded Minato and spread through the entirety of Konoha and the Nine Tailed Fox. Then, as quickly as it came, it vanished, as did the fox. Cheers erupted from every remaining villager and ninja of Konoha. They didn't know how, but the Forth Hokage had defeated the fox and saved them all. They were all right in a way, but soon they would find out how much it actually cost him. Some turned to look for the Fourth Hokage atop Gamabunta's head, but all they found was a man screaming in pain and coughing up blood as he carefully clutched a small object wrapped in cloth that wailed just as loud as he.

Minato slowly stopped coughing and his pain began to ebb away. His death was near. As he fell on his back, he slowly cradled his son in his arms. By the sounds of it, his son must have endured as much if not more pain then he did. The boy was now unconscious and unmoving. He noticed that the seal he designed had worked and had appeared on his son's stomach. Ruffling his son's hair for the last time, he spoke with a raspy voice as he said his farewell.

"Goodbye my son… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry. I… I love you… my son…" And with his last words said his eyes closed and his rocking stopped. Minato, The Yellow Flash of Konoha, the Fourth Hokage, was dead.

Slowly coming out of the shock of realizing that his surrogate grandson was dead, Sarutobi walked towards the fallen Hokage. Checking Minato's body, his tears once again began to flow, as he found nothing to indicate life. Slowly moving his head over to the small bundle in Minato's arms, he gently lifted Naruto up and cradled him in his own. Jiraiya walked to his sensei and placed a comforting hand on his shoulders.

Without warning Sarutobi felt a great heat emerge from Naruto. It was so great he jumped back from shock and accidentally dropped the little infant. Naruto was stopped in mid air by a swirl of red charka. The hot charka quickly burnt through the cloth to reveal a squirming Naruto under them.

"Jiraiya! What is going on? Is the seal not holding?" Sarutobi yelled to his student. Jumping into action, Jiraiya landed beside Naruto and placed his hand in between the flames of red charka to check the seal on Naruto's stomach.

"He's… he's fine and so is the seal. But his body is violently reacting to the small amounts of the fox's charka that is supposed to leak through the seal. It has happened to many jinchuuriki before but never this severe. I don't know if his body will take it." Jiraiya explained to his sensei, quickly removing his now scorched arm from the flames. Jiraiya and Sarutobi watched in horror as Naruto thrashed violently, his body reacting to the massive quantities of the fox's charka.

"This shouldn't be happening Jiraiya! The seal should only allow a very minuet amount of the fox's charka to leak out! Not this much!" Sarutobi was sure something was wrong, but the look he saw in Jiraiya's eyes confirmed that it wasn't, which confused Sarutobi even more.

"This… this is a very minuet amount of the fox's charka. Think about it, sensei, the creatures charka is nearly limitless. I… I just hope that Naruto is able to survive. He has already lost too much tonight. We can't expect him to lose his own life as well." Jiraiya continued to stare at the thrashing Naruto, while clutching his still very burnt arm.

They both watched as the small infant, barely an hour old, screamed in a pained silence. He was subjected to more pain then most would feel in a lifetime. Then, without warning, the charka slowed almost to a crawl and spread about his body. The charka flowed quickly, then slowly, as it was absorbed back into the little baby's body. As it did, Naruto thrashed even more violently. After about ten minutes of this process, the charka gathered at three specific places: his head, his stomach and his rear. Sarutobi and Jiraiya continued to watch in horror as physical changes began on Naruto's body.

The first was three small whisker-like marks appearing on either side of his check. The second was teeth emerging and beging to sharpen and grow, especially his canines. His hair grew slightly longer and his nails grew and sharpened. Sarutobi and Jiraiya both watched as his ears began to just disappear. Within seconds his ears were completely gone, but what arose in their stead made Jiraiya almost lose his lust for young ladies and Sarutobi almost wish he were filling out paperwork. Two small fox ears grew atop young Naruto's head. They were reddish with light cream white tips. However, this was not the last change. At almost the same time, Naruto began to sprout a foxtail of the same colors. As his appendage finished its growth, the chakra that was flowing around and into him simply dissipated into thin air, leaving the newly-made hanyou, Naruto, to drop back on top of the chief toad's head.

His thrashing had ended and he had fallen unconscious from the pain. Compared to how he was before, he looked peaceful, as all newborns should be. Jiraiya was the first to recover from his shock and slowly walked towards the small boy. He placed his hand on the kid's neck and checked for a pulse. He sighed when he felt it, which was quiet strong too considering what had just transpired. He then proceeded to check Naruto's seal. It was still intact and completely undamaged. He cautiously picked Naruto up, cradling him carefully in his arms. "It seems we have the first hanyou since the tailed demons were first sought after, over 75 years ago." Jiraiya said with sadness.

Sarutobi, who had now also recovered from his shock, stood next to Jiraiya. They both jumped off Gamabunta's head and landed back in the Hokage tower.

"If you need the help of the toads with anything in the little brat's life, just let me know. I owe his father a great many debts and I would hate to see what he loved most, hated and despised by what he holds, and now sadly resembles." And with that said, the great chief toad returned to his home in a great puff of smoke.

Sarutobi now held Naruto and wept. He would hate to imagine what little Naruto's life would be like now. He brought the little hanyou close to his chest and gave him a grandfatherly hug. Naruto seemed to relax from the hug and gave a little babied sigh. "If only I could adopt you Naruto your life would be much better, but the stupid council would never allow it. You may have had a chance before, you may have only been ignored by the villagers and perhaps glared at occasionally… but… but now I would hate to think what your life would be like now." Sarutobi was busy trying to think of ways to help the poor little hanyou when Naruto began to stir.

Jiraiya and Sarutobi looked down at the stirring infant with sad eyes. Naruto slowly looked back at the two men and gave a little giggle when he felt Sarutobi's beard tickle his cheek. Sarutobi smiled at the child in his arms and watched him try to pull on his beard. He jumped quickly back when he felt something touch his stomach before realizing that it was the little hanyou's tail. It was twitching slightly back and forth, obviously showing that the child had little control over it. He reached under the child and lifted his tail up with one hand and rested it on the child's stomach. Naruto became instantly fascinated with the strange appendage and began to slightly tug on it. Sarutobi found himself enjoying the scene before him as it reminded him of his younger days with his own children.

Suddenly Naruto's fox ears twitched to the right quickly followed by his little head. Sarutobi marveled at how quickly the baby had function of his limbs. In just a few hours he could move his own head and hands as well as twitch his tail and ears. Sarutobi followed the direction of Naruto's face and couldn't see anything. Several minutes later he started to see civilians and ninja heading his way. Glancing down at Naruto then back at the crowd slowly gathering he sighed. "They are not going to like this, Jiraiya. They will order his death in revenge of those lost to the fox. They might even accuse Naruto of being the fox because he is a hanyou." Jiraiya looked at his sensei with a still pain in his eyes.

"Will you let them? Naruto never did anything to them, but they won't see him as a savior. They will hate and despise him and so will their children. What will you do?"

"I may not be allowed to adopt him myself, because the council won't allow it. But that doesn't mean I can't create a few laws to prevent him from suffering because of their blindness." Looking back down to the baby that was now almost asleep again in his arms he wished that there was more that he could do. "Lets just hope that you will be able to find happiness in your life, young Naruto. You would have had a much easier time before but not now. I will do what I can to help you, Naruto. I just wish your parents were here to help you were I can't." And with that he left, Jiraiya now holding Naruto, to go and explain to the village what had transpired tonight and of a few laws that he was going to enforce. "Maybe you had a little too much faith in the village, Minato."


	2. Chapter 1: The life of a Hanyou

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot in my fanfiction.

**Updated - Reviewed, Proofread, and Edited by HypoSoc**

* * *

Chapter 1: The Life of a Hanyou

Five years later:

Naruto ran as fast as his little legs could carry him. His two fox ears twitched right and left, scanning for sounds to help him escape. Now five years old, Naruto's physical appearance had grown to resemble a normal, if slightly underweight, five-year-old. His hair had grown longer in every direction. It was just a spiky mess. It had, however, grown long enough to cover where his human ears use to be. Naruto had also fully learnt how to control his ears, nose, and tail, using them to his fullest advantage.

However, despite what one would think, Naruto only used his enhanced senses of smell and hearing to keep him safe from the vengeful villagers that constantly attack him. Naruto never knew why they hated him so much. They would always say harsh words to him, such as 'demon' and 'monster.' They would hurt him in any way they saw fit. Sometimes they would decide he needed a beating for something they said he had done. Other times, they just beat him for the hell of it.

It hurt and confused the young boy that all the adults would treat him this way. It confused him even more so when they would treat all the other kids his age with love and kindness. Other kids got food. He had asked on many occasions why they kept treating him this way, but the usual reply was an unsatisfactory: "You deserve it you little fox demon!" Naruto could understand the 'fox' part. After all, he looked like a fox. According to the old-man hokage, he was the last of a clan who possessed a kekke genkai, a unique clan-dependant bloodline trait. This one gave them the appearance and abilities of different animals, and his happened to be a fox. The 'demon' part made no sense to him, however. What he had learnt of a demon in his short life was that they are forces of evil who find joy and pleasure in killing others and destroying things. Naruto was nothing like that, or at least he thought he wasn't. If he wasn't a demon, why were the villagers always so mean to him?

Naruto had always wanted to know why they did this, and why they told their kids to leave him alone or buly him. The adults never let their kids play with him. Naruto loved to play, but he never got to, as he was excluded from others in the orphanage. So after they threw him out for a reason he never knew, he decided to make some friends. Unfortunately, parents always got angry and chased him away or did worse. This was the reason for his current predicament.

Naruto found a little girl in the park who was sitting near his tree. He had started living in this tree since he was thrown out of the orphanage because he couldn't find where the old man lived. He decided to ask if she wanted to play with him.

She obviously hadn't met or heard of him before, as she was nice to him and agreed to play. She had short, blond hair and bright, blue eyes that were much like his own. She wore bright purple clothing. From what Naruto could decipher from her quick-paced speech, her name was Ino and she was from the Yamanaka clan. She also asked in an equally quick-paced speech why he had fox ears and a tail. Giving her the story he was told seemed to satisfy her curiosity, but not her fascination. She repetitively tugged on his tail for entertainment.

After telling each other about themselves and a little bit about their lives (which wasn't very much considering they were only five), Naruto asked if she wanted to climb trees with him. That was one of his favorite pastimes because his clawed hands and feet made it easy. She agreed. At first, Ino had some trouble with the task, but soon she was able to climb a meter off the ground thanks to Naruto's assistance with his tails.

At the top of this small tree, the two continued their talk about anything and everything. After a while, they both got bored and Ino suggested that they play tag. Naruto, not knowing how to play, asked her about the rules. After explaining the game to him, Naruto helped her down and proclaimed that he was it. After giving her 20 seconds to run away, Naruto began chasing his chase. She wasn't really fast compared to Naruto, so he easily caught her. Just as he was about to reach out and tag her, she turned slightly to avoid him. She failed this maneuver, and instead of being tagged, she was scratched by his clawed fingers on her shoulder.

Realizing that he had hurt the girl, Naruto halted and asked if she was alright. She began to slightly tear up as her arm registered that it was hurt. Naruto rushed to help her as much as he could, feeling very guilty of what he had done.

Before Naruto could assist her, however, he heard a woman's voice yell "YOU LITTLE DEMON! GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!" Jumping back quickly, he looked around to see who had addressed him. Fear caught hold of him when he saw a very enraged older version of Ino rushing towards him. He assumed from her previous statement that she was Ino's mother.

He backed down, his tail between his legs. Ino's mother kneeled next to her daughter and asked if she was ok.

"I'm… I'm fine mother, it was just an accident. We were playing and-" Ino was cut off by her mother who was now diving for Naruto. She grabbed him by his arm and lifted him into the air.

"YOU HURT MY DAUGHTER, YOU LITTLE MONSTER! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER?" Ino's mother, clutching the little hanyou in her hand, lifted him higher and slammed a fist into his face. He was sent flying through the air and he crashed into a tree. Three nearby heard someone the yell of a demon touching someone's daughter. They rushed to the parents aid to see an almost unconscious Naruto stagger to his feet and hold his head.

Ino couldn't believe what her mother had done. She rushed to help Naruto, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She stopped.

"Don't worry, Ino-chan. I won't let him hurt you or anyone else again." Turning to the three men she decided to enlist their help. "YOU THREE! DON'T JUST STAND THERE! HELP ME PUNISH THE DEMON! HE HURT MY DAUGHTER!" Ino's mouth almost hit the ground and she had trouble trying to speak as she heard her mother actually ask them to help her hurt Naruto.

The three men turned to face Naruto with cold eyes. Naruto, remembered their faces as ones who had hurt him before. Once, when he was eating some food out of a bin, they accused him of stealing it. Since he didn't have any money, they decided to take it out of his 'hide.' He shivered at the memory and tried to look for somewhere to run. His thinking was cut short as the three men shouted to him.

"You can't run this time demon! We will get you and make you pay for what you did to this little girl." With that, they charged Naruto. Ino tried to yell out for them to stop, but her cries went on deaf ears. Naruto, realizing that he was really in for it this time, took a quick glace at Ino, who had started crying at what was happening then ran.

Naruto ran as fast as his little legs could carry him. His two fox ears twitched right and left, scanning for sounds to help him escape. His face was bleeding from the mother's punch. He had really done it this time. He could tell by the look in their eyes that they were going to kill him. Naruto had been hurt before, but never had he felt as much anger as he did when she punched him. He couldn't understand why all the adults did this to him. He tried to explain that it was an accident and so did Ino, but once again they didn't listen. Naruto quickly turned a corner and dropped down to all fours; he could always run faster when he ran like that. But, just before he took off again, he felt a sharp pain in both of his legs and fell face-first as his legs drop from beneath him. Crawling into a sitting position, he looked at his legs and saw a shuriken in each. Looking up, he saw the three men and Ino's mother running towards him.

One of the men had a kunai ready and another had a katana pulled out. The last was starting a sequence of hand signs. This was it: he was really going to die. Still looking towards his oncoming attackers, Naruto began to cry, not out of pain from the shuriken, but out of fright for the pain about to come. Landing in front of him, the four ninja glared evilly and began to give a light laugh at the sight before them; the little demon fox was cowering, pretending to cry and look innocent by drooping his ears and tail and whimpering. Then one of the men, the one with the katana, took two steps forward.

"HA! You think that pretending to cry will save you? I will make you pay for what you did to me! And this woman's child! AND ALL OF KONAHA!" Practically screaming the last part, he plunged his sword done right through Naruto's left arm and into the ground, effectively pinning him. Naruto's screams ran throughout their ears, but this only seemed to encourage them. Standing back and letting another take his place, a tearful Naruto glanced up at his next attacker and cowered before him, curling his tail close to him. Sadly, before he had it safely tucked under him the second man threw a kunai through it, holding it in place as well. Naruto again screamed from the enormous pain rushing through his system and attempted to pull out the kunai with his free hand. This hand too was quickly pined down but this time by the foot of Ino's mother. Her eyes bore down upon him, filled with hate. Why did they always treat him like this? Why did they always look at him with such hate and disgust? He never did anything to them and yet they still accused him of doing all these nasty things to them and all of Konoha.

"W-why… why do you all do this… to me? What did I do? Please tell me. I… I don't ever remember doing anything to you… but… but if I did I'm sorry… I'm… s-sorry. Please don't hurt me any more." Naruto's voice was raspy and almost silent; the pain was clearly evident in the way he spoke. His innocent questions brought a smile to all four of their faces. Was the little demon expecting mercy after what he did to them?

"HA! You honestly expect us to believe that? As for what you did, you know damn well monster! You are foolish to think that we would fall for such a story. NOW DIE, FOX!" The third man stepped forward and held his hand to his mouth, but before he used his jutsu, Ino's mother stepped forward and held him in place.

"Wait! We can't kill him yet! He still hasn't suffered enough yet! Even though we could never inflict the amount of pain he did to us, we can still get close." Grinning viciously at him, she knelt down, still holding his hand down with her foot. She took her own kunai out and placed it near his chest. Then, despite his attempted struggles and cries of pain, she quickly drew deep cuts into his chest watching in what looked akin to pleasure. His blood ran from the deep wounds. She continued her inhuman 'punishment' until a small, but still loud and hurt voice made her stop.

"M-mother! W-what are you doing to him? Let him go! I-It was an accident! Why won't you listen… and why are you four… hurting Naruto?" A very pained and horrified Ino stooped about ten meters away, holding a tree for support as she tried to process what she had just seen. Her mother was cutting Naruto and… smiling! Before she could run to them and try to help Naruto, however, her mother quickly grabbed her and began running home. Before she left however, she called back to the three men behind her, issuing a last order.

"You three hurry up and kill that fox! By now at least one of the nearby Anbu has heard the little demon's screams!" That comment hit home for Ino, and tears began to fall even faster then before. Her mother, the woman who was her model in life and the one she loved so much ordered the death of a little boy who had done nothing wrong.

Naruto's consciousness began to slip as the pain finally began to over ride his thoughts. However, one thought whirled around both his and Ino's mind as his last bit of strength left his body: 'Why?'. Ino's tears were hazing her vision but to her horror she could still see the third man standing in front of Naruto take in a deep breath then complete his jutsu by exhaling fire.

"Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" These were the last words Naruto heard before he his entire world went black. Ino buried her head into her mother's shoulders as the sight before her made her sick to her very soul. The same question still in her mind: 'Why?'

Three hours later:

Hinata Hyuga was beautiful, little girl with pupil-less lavender eyes; dark, blue hair; and pure white skin. She was truly fitting of her role as the heiress of the Hyuga clan. However, unlike most Hyuga, Hinata was a very kind and gentle soul who would rather hurt herself then another. This was all well and good, but her incredible shyness kept her from really enjoying life as she could never make any friends. She feared their rejection and insults. The elders of the Hyuga clan worried and questioned about their heiress's ability to lead the clan, however they were reassured that this would fade as she grew up.

Hitomi, Hinata's mother, figured that the best remedy to her shyness was to find some friends who accept her and were around her own age. Hitomi originally thought that her nephew Neji would be a great friend for her daughter, but sadly he seemed too tight about his role as guardian and did not make a good playmate for her. Most of the other Branch children were either a lot older or too scared to play with Hinata because she was in the Main family.

It was for this very reason that Hitomi had taken her daughter to the public park in the middle of Konaha. She had hoped that seeing different kids her age playing together would encourage Hinata to join in and maybe make some friends. This, unfortunately, did the complete opposite: Hinata was even more nervous than usual. She just sat next to her mother with a sad, lonely face playing with her fingers, which was her habit when she got nervous.

Hinata really wanted to play with the other kids. She noticed three kids climbing along the play gym encouraging each other when they came to an obstacle. Hinata wanted to ask them if she could join them, but was worried that they would find her too cowardly because she didn't really like heights. She would freeze up if she were too high off the ground. Deciding that they wouldn't let her play, she turned her lavender eyes to the next group of kids. She saw a group of five kids jumping in a skipping rope with one of them at each end turning the rope. Hinata had never seen this game before, but by the look on all of their faces they were indeed having the time of their lives. Before she could even think to build up her courage, however, she saw one of the kids trip on the rope and fall causing all the other kids to stop for him. Hinata, figuring that she wouldn't be good enough to jump like that, decided against playing with them, as she didn't want to interrupt their game by falling all the time.

The last bunch of kids that she saw was all grouped in a circle and were slowly and carefully bouncing a super-bouncy ball between them. The game looked simple enough and she saw them welcome a few other kids since they started their game. Thinking that she might have a chance, she began to gather her courage to go and face them. But fate was not on her side as one of the kids, obviously a show off, thought it would be funny to see just how high he could send it. The ball, being a super-bouncy ball, did not travel in the intended direction and flew off at high speeds into the nearby trees. Giving a small glare at the disruptor of their game, the children then quickly dispersed among the trees to find the ball.

Feeling disheartened that the game had ended before she could even ask to join; Hinata gave a small sigh and lowered her head. Seeing Hinata's expression, Hitomi realized that her daughter actually thought about joining in with those kids. Quickly, an idea surfaced in her mind on a way to help her daughter.

"Hinata-chan, why don't you help them find their ball? I'm sure they would appreciate the extra help." Hitomi noticed the sudden, positive change in her daughter's face, but it quickly reverted back to her normal, discouraged one.

"I-I don't know w-what I could d-do. If t-they can't find it, how c-could I?" Hinata's lack of belief in her own ability was very evident in her voice as she spoke. It sounded so sweet and kind, but lacked any hint of self-belief and courage.

"Easily my dear, all you have to do is use your Byakugan and find the ball." Hitomi knew that the Hyuga's bloodline limit could easily find the ball, but Hinata still didn't think she could do it.

"But I-I only just learnt h-how to activate my B-Byakugan. I c-could never find it. I'm not g-good enough with i-it." Hinata began to slightly sob as she once again pondered her weakness. Hitomi placed a gentle hand on her daughters shoulder and tilted the girl's head up slightly with her thumb.

"You will never know unless you try. Why don't you give it a go? You might surprise yourself. Don't worry because I believe that you can do it." Not wanting to disappoint her mother, Hinata's small sobs slowly ebbed away. She slowly gathered charka to her eyes and hands proceeding with the necessary handsigns to activate her bloodline. She fully expected it to fail. She was rewarded for her efforts with her Byakugan activating and her sight changing to black and white, viewing almost 360 around her for about five meters.

Slowly standing up with a small smile on her face, she tried to concentrate on the vast rush of information her mind was subjected to and tried to see around her. Changing your view from normal sight to panoramic vision can be very hard to get use to, especially for a little girl who wasn't even five. Standing almost perfectly still, Hinata used her Byakugan to try and locate the ball. This was only the second time Hinata had used her Byakugan, so she did not find the task easy. To her, everything just seemed like blurs. The trees, bushes and other children were not aiding her search.

Suddenly, she noticed something in her field of vision that was not any of the other things. Thinking she had discovered the ball, she yelled out that she had found it. This gained everyone's attention, which in turn caused Hinata to blush a deep red. While the kids around her slowly approached to find out where their ball was, she focused her gaze on the strange object and its figure began to slowly take shape.

She cringed when she realized it wasn't the ball. "I-its not the ball… I… I think it's a f-fox." Most of the children that had gathered around her left to continue their search but a few remained, obviously wanting to see the fox. Not wanting to disappoint the remaining kids, Hinata began to lead them to the fox and was followed closely by her mother, who was quite proud that her daughter had found something, albeit a hazy something, about ten to fifteen meters away through brush on her second use of the Byakugan.

As the kids slowly approached the area Hinata was leading them to, her vision became clearer. As she became closer and she could make out the fox a little better. She let out a loud gasp and everyone turned their attention back to Hinata who seemed to be shaking slightly.

"What is it Hinata? What do you see?" Concern was clearly evident in Hitomi's voice, as she had rarely seen her daughter nervous enough to shake.

"I-it's the fox… it is h-hurt, and badly… I-I can see its b-blood!" Concern for the little fox quickly overwhelmed her nervousness and she ran through the remaining bushes into a small, burnt clearing where the little fox lay. The sight she saw before her made her loose control of her Byakugan and it deactivated. She saw not a fox, but a small boy with blond hair and two fox ears and a tail, wearing dark brown rags that had been severely burnt. His right hand and tail had been impaled by a katana and a kunai and his flesh was a dark black and peeling, evidence of severe burns. But, the most disturbing sight of it all was the blood. A bloody puddle of about one and a half meters in diameter surrounded the small boy. Beginning to faint from the horrible sight, the last thing Hinata saw was her mother lifting her up.

"Wha… What is this?" Hitomi almost screamed as she saw the sight before her. Tucking her daughter into her arms to hide her away from the sight she quickly stepped forward to identify who or what the corpse was of. She looked over the little boy's burnt body and slowly recognized who it was. "T-This is Naruto?" The pure shock and disbelief in her voice echoed around the clearing, and a few of the children who she had told to stay behind for a second began to slowly emerge. Many of the children quickly turned away from the horrifying sight before them and ran away crying, some even vomited. But a few remained, and those who remained began to laugh.

To say Hitomi was surprised by their reaction would be a major understatement. She turned her eyes in disbelief to see a few children some no older then four laughing at this poor boy. A flicker of anger arose in Hitomi, and her Byakugan quickly activated. Like a flash she appeared behind the children and glared down upon them, startling the kids and almost making some of them shit themselves as they gazed up into Hitomi's furious eyes. "WHY DO YOU FIND THIS FUNNY? THIS POOR BOY WAS MURDERED AND YOU… YOU LAUGH AT HIM! WHAT SORT OF CHILDREN ARE YOU!" Hitomi's fury quickly silenced the children before them, but one little upstart just smirked.

"What's wrong with you lady, we should be celebrating now that the monster is dead. My parent's are always telling me on how bad this little monster is and how much they love to punish him for his crimes. They always said it was about time that the 'little demon' paid for his crimes so why aren't you happy?" Hitomi just stared at the boy who had spoken to her. Had she heard him right? Did he actually think it was something to celebrate about? A thought then hit her like a tone of lightning bolts. This is why no one ever heard of Naruto recently: people had been 'attempting' their revenge on the fox.

They probably thought Naruto was the fox. Their anger and hatred towards him had obviously rubbed off on their children. Hitomi began to cry as she thought about how terrible little Naruto's life must have been. She could almost imagine all the adults accusing him of things and hurting him for almost no reason. He would have felt true loneliness, no one to love him, and no one to love as everyone around him hated him for just existing. No person deserved this treatment; let alone an orphan child who in Hitomi's mind was their savior, not their destroyer. Hitomi was brought out of her thoughts when she saw one of the children though a rock at the corpse in front of them.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Hitomi's voice was seldom ever raised, but when it was, many of the males in the Hyuga Compound would almost shit themselves. So for little children, this was more then enough to make them run back home crying. Utter disgust and anger was more then present in her voice.

Now that the horrible children were gone Hitomi turned her gaze back to the corpse in front of her. As she walked towards it, however, she noticed that where the rock had struck the small boys burnt face, a small chunk of burnt skin had fallen off revealing almost perfectly healed skin underneath. With a small glimmer of hope, Hitomi rushed to the little boy's side, still holding her unconscious daughter. Brushing a small amount of burnt skin off his neck again revealed healed skin underneath. Amazed by his curative rate, she checked for a pulse. Her heart almost forgot how to beat when she felt that he was still alive, quite alive if the level of his pulse was any measure.

Pulling out a small cloth from under her kimono, she proceeded to clean the little hanyou, carefully brushing off the dead burnt skin and gently rubbing any areas that were dirty. After about twenty minutes, she leant over to where the katana was still piercing his arm and carefully removed it. Seeing his blood flow from the wound quickly prompted her to tear some cloth and rap his arm tightly. She did the same procedure with his tail. Feeling that it was broken she used a small stick as a splint.

After she had bandaged the wounds she felt her daughter begin to stir. "M-mommy… h-how is the little fox b-boy?" Hinata's voice sounded even softer then usual. She always had had a kind a considerate heart, and seeing Naruto in such a state must have more then upset her.

"He's very injured with many broken bones and burnt skin… but he seems to be healing at an unprecedented rate. He… he might actually survive. But we need to help get him back to the Hyuga hospital, so I'll need you to walk on your own if you can so I can carry him." Seeing her daughter's eyes light up with hope and happiness almost brought a tear to her eyes. Hinata really did care about everything and everyone.

Hinata hoped out of her mother's arms and turned to look at Naruto. She gasped again but not from seeing him in such a gruesome state as before, but because she could see that he had mostly healed from the burns. With almost all the burnt skin and grime cleared off his body, he looked peaceful but at the same time lonely. She looked over his features and became curious about why he had fox ears, a tail, claws and whisker looking marks on his cheeks, but she probably wouldn't have the time to ask him for a while. He had long blond hair that was everywhere at the same time and reached down past his shoulders. His face was quite round and still had the look of a baby. His body was fairly bony and looked like he hadn't eaten in a week; which was almost true. She found herself wondering what sort of eyes he would have.

Hitomi gently picked Naruto up and placed a hand under his tail, careful as to not agitate the broken bones. Standing up, she cradled him in her arms. A smile appeared on the boys face and Hitomi found herself wondering if Naruto was aware of her or if it was just the motherly hold that gave him peace. Then, as quickly and as gentle as she could, Hitomi walked back to the Hyuga Compound, with a still slightly upset Hinata following close behind.

Avoiding the villagers on the way to the Hyuga Compound was not easy and a few times she had to take a side street to avoid contact. She wasn't really sure on how badly Naruto was treated by the villagers, but judging from his earlier state, she assumed that most if not the entire village despised him. Therefore, she decided to play it safe and avoid them.

Upon reaching the outer gates of the Hyuga Compound, Hitomi picked up her pace a little and within a few minutes was just outside the hospital. Without even bothering to give the guards an explanation as to why she was carrying a bloodied hanyou, she burst through the hospital doors and demanded that a doctor come to her at once.

Recognizing the woman before them as the matriarch of the main branch of the Hyuga, the nurse quickly scurried away to grab an available doctor. She returned with a branch member who had a long white lab coat, dark black hair and amazingly, glasses. The Byakugan was the prize of the Hyuga clan, and they valued their sight beyond almost everything. To see a Hyuga who needed glasses was a pitiable sight. They often lived their lives as outcasts. In contrast, to see one as a respected doctor was a great testament to his ability. Hitomi was hoping for this, as it was always so hard to find a competent doctor ever since Lady Tsunade had left the village.

The doctor gave a disapproving look at the boy in Hitomi's arms. He knew of Naruto and didn't really want to help him, for he too thought little of the 'demon,' but the glare Hitomi sent him silenced any protests he was about to make. The nurse and doctor led Hitomi to a small, empty ward then proceeded to ask what the problem was. Hitomi looked at them like they had grown a second head.

"Are you kidding me? I'm holding a half-burnt and bloodied child in my arms and you ask me 'what is the problem?' He was barely alive when I found him; his whole body was completely burnt and he had a kunai through his tail and a katana threw his right arm! He also has multiple deep slash wounds along his chest! Now, I have given you the diagnosis so your job is easy: HELP HIM!" Few of the Hyuga had ever seen a main branch member, let alone a matriarch, ever let their emotions show to the point of yelling in anger, so they were quite shocked, that is until Hitomi gently lay Naruto down on a hospital bed and tapped her foot waiting for them to begin.

"Um… yes Hitomi-sama we shall begin his treatment immediately. But I will have to ask you to wait outside." Hitomi looked at the doctor and nurse and nodded her head.

"I will wait outside but I will be watching, I don't believe you two like this poor child anymore then the villagers. Come on Hinata-chan, we must let the doctor's do there job." Gently holding her daughter by her hand, she walked out of the ward and sat outside the door with her Byakugan activated, steadily watching the doctors. Hinata was silently wishing for the poor, little fox-boy to get better.

About two hours later, a slightly tired doctor and nurse emerged from the ward with grim smiles on their face. Hitomi expected the worst.

"What happened? Is he okay?" Hitomi asked with concern. The doctor and nurse's face then conveyed their shock and amazement.

"He… He will live… But I have no idea how. His injuries were healing themselves at a rapid rate but we could still tell the damage that had originally be done to him… I-I didn't realize that the village could be so cruel. The wounds he had- the broken- I… I have done everything I could. He was severely damaged originally but… but his wounds have mostly healed. But I'm not sure a five-year-old child could survive that physically much less mentally. By all accounts he should be dead. It must be… because of 'it'." Hitomi's face frowned at the mention of the burden, sealed inside of the poor boy.

By the look in the doctor's eyes, he didn't really hate the boy, but he didn't particularly like him either. What she did see was disgust at the villagers. She doubted it was for whom they targeted, just more of what they did. No human being should be able to cause harm to a child like that, regardless of whether they thought he was a demon.

"So… So how long will it be before he wakes up?" at this Hinata looked up at the doctor for the first time since arriving. She also wanted to know when the little fox boy would be all right.

"Well… I can't exactly say. My best guess is when his mind pieces itself back together from the trauma of the assault, which could be anywhere from a few months to a few years to never. All I do know is it wont be anytime soon. Now, normally I would say it would be best for him to not have any visitors but, considering his body is almost physically at one hundred percent, I will allow it." The doctor and nurse then proceeded to give a slight bow and return to their duties. Hitomi could have sworn that she saw a slight tear the nurse's eye as she left. By the look on her face, it was from the injuries they must have discovered on the boy's body. No child should have ever received that amount of punishment, especially if they were innocent. She was brought out of her thoughts when she felt her daughter tug on her sleeves.

"M-mommy… c-can I see the little f-fox boy, please?" Hitomi looked down at her daughter and saw the pain in her eyes from seeing the boy in such a state. Hinata always hated to see anything hurt, so seeing Naruto in such a state must have more then upset her.

"His name is Naruto dear, and yes you may." Hitomi grabbed onto her daughter's hand and led her back into the ward.

'_Please be okay Naruto'_was all Hinata had on her mind as she entered the ward.


	3. Chapter 2: The Awakening

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

* * *

Well as promised. An update exactly one week from first release date. This will continue until I have posted all available chapters, and then I will post the chapters as I complete them. Remember though, I do have my other works and this is only a side project. However, I have only been doing it for four months and I have got over 112000 words to date, so it shouldn't be long between updates once all the completed chapters have run out.

Chapter 2: The Awakening

One week later

A week after Naruto was brought to the Hyuga hospital, Hitomi was again listening to her husband ramble on about how the elders of the clan and the council members where making his life difficult. She often found it funny to watch him as he vented his anger, because he would sometimes resemble a small child chucking a tantrum.

"…and then they decided that the branch family was receiving to many missions recently and tried to force my brother to decline thirty percent of the missions or give them a huge percentage of the money they make, and all this after what they decided to add to the branch last week. I swear one of these days the elders are going to have some huge problems with the branch family." Hiashi fell down in a slouch on his office chair and raised his head expecting his wife to try and say something to make him feel better like she always did. However as he looked into her lavender eyes he realised that she wasn't really paying attention and seemed to be deep in thought. Calling out her name snapped her out of her trance and she apologised for fazing out.

"Its just… I'm just worried about Naruto, its been one week and his wounds have healed but he is still in a coma, I'm just worried that he might never wake up, and so is Hinata-chan… do you think he will wake up? Have you visited him Hiashi-kun?" Hiashi turned his head away from his wife, in truth he really didn't want to talk about the little hanyou in the Hyuga hospital but his wife was worried about him and so was his daughter. He himself didn't know what to think yet, he had heard stories about the boy and they worried him. Although he never believed them fully, there still might have been some truth in them. He also did not believe the injuries the child was reported to have even though they were told to him from his wife's mouth he still did not believe that a child could survive that amount of physical punishment, regardless of whether he held the Nine Tailed Fox in him or not.

"No, I have not visited him nor do I plan to. I still do not even know why you brought him to the Hyuga hospital, any regular hospital should have been suffice. As to when he will wake up, I have no idea as I am not a doctor." Hiashi's response earned him a glare from his wife, to her his comment made him sound a little too like the other villagers.

"And why not Hiashi-kun? He is your best friends son, how could you be so heartless to be like all the other villagers, what has he ever done?" This time it was Hiashi's turn to glare.

"Do not compare me to those disrespectful villagers, I do not think Naruto is the fox nor do I think he is himself. When he wakes up however I shall observe him closely, it will be easy to make sure if he is under any influence from the fox with my Byakugan. Only then will I decide what I think about the boy." Despite how much her husband had annoyed her just now, he was still willing to give him a chance, unlike all the idiot villagers so that was enough for her. "Oh, and one more thing about the council, they have heard of Naruto's assault and just claimed that he provoked them, they have also heard that you saved him from dieing in the park and brought him to the Hyuga hospital, they want him gone or they will threaten to charge you will protecting a criminal." This really hit a point on Hitomi and she stood up in fury.

"HOW DARE THEY! HE IS NOT THE CRIMINAL, THEY ARE FOR ALLOW THIS ALL TO HAPPEN TO HI-" Hitomi was cut short from her rage as they heard a branch member knock on Hiashi's office door. "Come in." Although Hitomi had regained her composure you could still feel her fury. A moment later the same doctor who had been treating Naruto slowly walked in and bowed low.

"Excuse me Hiashi-sama, Hitomi-sama. But I thought that you would want to know that Naruto's brain activity has picked up tremendously… as hard as it is to believe it, I think that his mind has repaired as best it can and he might wake up from his coma very soon." He slowly raised his head and saw that Hitomi was barely containing her happiness, but Hiashi however seemed as emotionless as ever.

"He… He's waking up! That is great news, take me to him immediately. Hiashi, regardless of your feelings I do believe that should at least wait outside his ward, encase you do wish to see him." Rushing out of her husband's office, she was practically dragging the branch doctor with her the whole way. Half way to the hospital she saw her daughter trying to talk to the other children of the Hyuga, most of them were wary of talking to her however and she was looking slightly upset with there dismissal of her.

"Hinata-chan! Quickly come with me, Naruto is waking up!" Hitomi called to her daughter, which had an instant response. Hinata quickly said goodbye to the children around her and apologised for leaving them, then quickly ran to catch up to her still running mother, who was still dragging the poor doctor.

Upon reaching Naruto's ward, Hitomi stopped running and breathed deeply both to prepare herself and to catch her second wind. Hinata was getting excited at the thought of Naruto finally waking up, however she also started to get a little nervous and began to hold on to her mother's dress for support, and to hide behind quickly if the need arose. The doctor gave a short bow and said that if Naruto wakes up they are to tell him immediately. Thanking the doctor for his help Hitomi then proceeded into Naruto's ward with her daughter close behind.

They saw the little boy laying in the hospital bed asleep soundly, his old rags long since gone and replaced with the usual hospital cloths, although they were a little too big for him. Hitomi noticed that Naruto's facial expressions were changing quickly, but they didn't look happy. His face would screw up as if in pain for a few seconds then relax, only to screw up again. Hitomi knew that he was having nightmares, and considering what happened a week ago she wouldn't be surprised if she knew what they were about.

In Naruto's Mindscape

Naruto found himself running in what seemed like a vast underground sewer system. He didn't remember how he got there, nor did he know where exactly it was. All he knew was that he really wanted to get out. Every time he would run down a corridor he would remember some horrible event that had happened to him in the past. He couldn't remember how long he had spent down in the sewer as there was barely ever any light to tell whether it was night or day. He ran down a new corridor he had found but instead of finding the way out he was rewarded with another painful memory.

_**Flashback**_

_Naruto was slowly walking though another street of the village trying desperately to find the old man hokage. He had asked a few villagers that had past him but they either completely ignored him or shoved him out of the way calling him names._

_Deciding to walk on the side path instead of in the middle of the road, Naruto's nose picked up the most delicious scent he had ever smelt. According to the smell it was large chicken cuts cooked in a cheese and shitake mushrooms sauce, all placed on a plate of fried udon noodles._

_Naruto's mouth began to drool and his stomach growled loudly but he realised that the food was not for him… it never was. Despite this though he was curious as to where the smell came from. Following his nose he soon came across a fancy restaurant with a large sign out the front containing today's specials._

_As Naruto began to read the list a tall man in a black suit, who had just finished serving another customer, walked out the front to greet the next person in line. As he was about to take a new couple into the restaurant however, he noticed a small boy reading the specials sign. On closer inspection he noticed who the boy was. Politely excusing himself from the couple he was serving he walked over to the boy with a look of pure disgust on his face._

"_Get away from here! We don't serve your kind so get lost!" Naruto spun around to see who had addressed him and wished he hadn't. Because as soon as Naruto had turned around he felt pain rush through his face and head as the waiter kicked him hard. Naruto flew a few meters back and covered his now broken nose with his hands, crying in pain. The man just looked at the bleeding child in front of him with a small amount of satisfaction. "Let that be a warning for you to stay away, monster!" Naruto began to fall over from the pain, and as he entered unconsciousness, the memory faded._

_**Flashback End**_

Naruto slowly stood up as he recovered from the horrible memory. Why? Why did they always treat him like this? In all of his memories people always hated him and despised him for nothing, in all the memories they all just looked at him with an icy stare and refused to treat him with anything that resembles kindness. He was distracted from his thoughts when he saw a small flicker of light at the end of another corridor, this being the first sign of light Naruto quickly ran towards it, in hopes that it was a way out of this horrible sewer. Upon reaching the light, Naruto saw that it was a small glass ball floating in mid air.

Curious as to what it was doing there Naruto reached up and grabbed the ball, pulling it close to him. When the ball was close enough Naruto could recognise two figures playing within the ball, to his shock it was himself and that girl Ino. Naruto smiled at the memory as he really did enjoy playing with the little girl. However his smile soon faded when he recalled what happen next, he had accidentally scratched her shoulder which her mother had seen. The glass ball upon Naruto remembering that part of the memory turned a bright blood red and Naruto saw himself being yelled at by Ino's mother.

**Flashback**

"_YOU HURT MY DAUGHTER YOU LITTLE MONSTER! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER!"_ _Ino's mother while clutching the little hanyou in her hand lifted him higher and slammed a fist into his face sending him flying through the air and hitting a tree hard. Naruto winced as he watched himself getting punched like that, looking at it from his angle now he must have flown back at least ten meters._

_Naruto then watched as the three men ran after him with the intent to kill him. Naruto watched as they stabbed him with a katana though his right arm then a kunai through his little tail. He watched with teary eyes as Ino's mother cut deep into his chest drawing huge quantities of blood from his body. He saw himself look up to them asking them why he deserved their hatred when he never did anything to them, why did they always hurt him? Only to see one man step forward and give him the same reply everyone else gave him._

"_HA! You honestly expect us to believe that! As for what you did you know damn well monster! You are foolish to think that we would fall for such a story. NOW DIE FOX!" Naruto turned away from the glass ball and release it from his hold._

**Flashback End**

He didn't know why they treated him like that, no matter how many times he sat and wondered he could never figure it out. He sat down in the murky water and began to cry, he cried for the pain he suffered and horrible memories he had endured, he cried for his lack of understanding of why they hated him, but what he mostly cried for was the utter loneliness he was feeling. Trapped in this strange sewer Naruto figured he would never make a real friend and it was probably better this way anyway, because who could ever want to be a friend with a monster. Then it hit him, like a thousand needles made of ice.

"Am… am I really a m-monster… is that… that why they hate me… I'm a monster." Finding no other reason to counter his thoughts Naruto once again began to cry. They hurt him because he was a fox monster, and there was nothing that he could do about it. Maybe that's why he was an orphan… maybe his parents thought that he was a monster too. Hating him like the rest of the village they maybe just put him in the orphanage and forgot about him. He was pulled from his dark thoughts as he heard a low growling in the distance down one of the furthest corridors that was visible.

Curious as to what was their and figuring that it would probably be something that could eat him and save the villagers from 'the monster' he slowly stood up and walked towards the growling. As he neared the corridor the growling got significantly louder and small amounts of red gas looking substance was slowly flowing out of the corridor. Peering around the corner Naruto looked down the long corridor filled with red gas. He could not see anything however so he decided to walk down it, what harm could it do he was probably going to die of starvation in this horrible sewer anyway. But before he moved a bright white light came from the far end of the sewer and a incredible strong gale soon began to pull at everything around it, including Naruto.

Fearful of what the light was doing Naruto grasped onto a small pipe next to him and held on for his dear life, hoping that the vortex would be over soon. However the wind just picked up its pass and Naruto felt his fingers begin to release there hold on the pipe, so as a last desperate attempt he dug his nails deep into the pipe. However, even with his new hold the wind was still proving stronger as Naruto felt his claws ripping right through the metal as he was pulled towards the vortex. He would never let go, he didn't want to be sucked into some strange vortex, that is until he heard a deep and booming voice come from the corridor in front of him.

"**Let go, you need to wake up and NOW!" **The voice gave a large roar as it finished, which blasted Naruto from the pipe and towards the vortex. Swirling and spinning in the powerful gale Naruto saw the vortex fast approach, or rather him approach the vortex. But as he connected with the vast expanse of white light he felt that he had hit something solid and past right through, feeling no pain at all. Naruto didn't realise that he was actually being pulled out of his subconscious by the voice of a small girl and her mother who were calling to him.

Hitomi and Hinata had been calling out softly to Naruto for the last fifteen minutes, as he was violently thrashing around obviously having a terrible nightmare. They were rewarded for their efforts when his body stopped shaking and his ears twitched slightly, followed by his eyes slowly opening.

Naruto opened his eyes slowly and allowed for them to adjust slightly to the rush of light, this new place was definitely brighter then the sewer. As his eyes were once again able to focus even if only a little he looked around the room he was in. At first glace it looked like just a white room with nothing in it, but as his eyes focused a little better he was able to see a little more. He saw that he was in a small white bed with railings and white sheets. He also felt that he wore different cloths and assumed that the cloths were also white, if anything in the room that he saw could vouch for that. He then heard some movement next to him and flicked his eyes to the right as he heard a voice speak to him.

"Naruto-kun are you alright?" Naruto almost jumped out of his skin as he didn't think there was anyone in the room with him. Slowly sitting up he turned to look at who had addressed him, this was quite the job as his muscles were very tight. He saw that the person who had spoke to him was standing right next to the bed he was in, however because his vision was still blurry he could not make out the figure properly. Of what he could see she was tall and slender with dark blue hair and seemed to carry an air of nobility around her. Naruto, mistaking her for an angel, feel into deep depression. '_So they did kill me after all… but why am I in heaven?... I thought that monsters go to hell?'_ Looking up to the figure in front of him he thought he might as well confirm it.

"Are… are you an angel? Am I dead and in heaven?" Naruto's voice was quite and full of sadness, it almost brought a tear to Hitomi's eyes that he thought that he was dead.

"No Naruto-kun I am not an angel, nor are you dead. You are in the Hyuga Hospital, my name is Hitomi and I am the Matriarch of the Hyuga clan." Hitomi, who expected a full array of questions from the young hanyou, was caught off guard when she saw his reaction.

Naruto had trouble understanding the woman in front of him as he was feeling a little dizzy. '_Why did she call me Naruto, no one calls me that except old man hokage… and how am I still alive… who would want to save a monster like me?' _Then another thought hit him like a tonne of bricks. The woman in front of him said she was the Matriarch of the Hyuga clan. Naruto had heard about them, they were like the nobility of Konoha and they would never tolerate someone like him, they would hate him, especially for using their hospital.

Rubbing his eyes so he could see better he looked at the woman to confirm his fears, and seeing her pupiless lavender eyes proved just that. Jumping out of the hospital bed sheets he bent down low and arched his back down, while placing his tail between his legs and flattening his ears, though he had no idea why he did this, to him it seemed natural almost like an instinct. He began to whimper slightly because of the fright of being beat again, maybe if he was lucky they would think him too below them to worry about and not beat him. They were nobility after all, and he was only a monster.

Hitomi looked on in shock as she saw what Naruto was doing. '_He… he looks like an animal who is submitting to a leader… and he is shaking in fear. Oh Naruto you poor child… what have they done to you.'_ While Hitomi was caught off guard by his animalistic behaviour in showing that he was less then them, she was almost knocked off her feet when he spoke to her. "P-please Hyuga-sama… please don't hurt me… I'm… I'm sorry for what I did… I… I don't know why I'm here but I'm so s-sorry, I didn't mean to be. Please don't hit me… I'm s-sorry I'm a monster… I'll run away and you will never hear from me again, I-I promise…" Naruto's voice alone was enough almost bring Hitomi to tears, but what really shocked her was his referral to himself. '_He… He called himself a monster? Oh what have they done to you Naruto.'_

Lifting her face to look him dead in the eyes she saw that he was tearing up while slowly taking submissive steps back, all the time placing his head low. She walked next to the bed and held out her hands slowly to his face. Naruto froze up thinking she was about to hit him, and his shaking started to show even more. The next thing he knew however he was lifted gently in the air by his armpits and pulled closer to her while she wrapped her arms around him. Thinking she was going to crush him he became even more still, waiting for the enviable pain that would soon follow. He was shocked however when she just held him gently in her arms while rocking him slowly back and forth and resting her head on his shoulder and whispering gentle words into his ears.

Naruto never remembered anyone ever doing this to him, he could feel the warmth on her body, he could feel her soft face against his while saying comforting things to him. It created a warmth within him that made him feel safe. Combined with her warmth and gentle hold the whole thing felt like nothing he had even had before, it felt… nice, and he liked it. Naruto feeling safer then ever before and another feeling he had only felt a few times… he felt happy. '_Maybe this is what it feels like to have friends and someone who cares for you…'_ The whole thing was just too much for little Naruto and he felt all his bottled up sadness almost flush away like a river as his tears began to flow from his heavy eyes.

Hitomi deeply saddened by Naruto's reaction to such a small show of affection, began to cry along with him all the while still whispering comforting words in his ears. She held him like this for about twenty minutes, until his tears slowly ebbed away and only small sniffles remained. Naruto looked up at the woman who had shown him his first experience of affection since the old man visited him in the orphanage, his eyes still red from fresh tears.

"Th-thank you Hyuga-sama… for this, I don't know what it is… but it was… nice… thank you." Hitomi gave the little hanyou in her arms a warm smile, but that soon disappeared when he next spoke. "I-I must go now… thank you for you kindness to me… I wish everyone in the village was as nice and pretty as you… I… I will go now. I need to leave so that the villagers don't hate you too… and I need to find the person who saved me, do you know where they are?"

"Call me Hitomi, and you don't have to leave Naruto, you are allowed to stay here as long as you want. Oh, and I don't ever want to hear you say that you are a monster, because you aren't, you are Naruto Uzumaki of the Leaf. Promise you won't?" Hitomi gave another warm smile and Naruto had to pinch his tail because he thought he was dreaming then slowly nodded. "And you don't have to worry about looking far for the one who saved you, she's right here. If anyone is an angel then she is." Looking around for her daughter, Hitomi gave a small sigh thinking her daughter had been too nervous and upset that she had left. Naruto however, lifted his head and began sniffing the air.

"Is... is there someone else here? I… I think I can smell another person here but they have almost the same scent as you." Hitomi was shocked that he could smell that well, and found herself almost not believing him. That is until she remembered about his 'bloodline' Then what he said actually hit her, slowly putting him back on the bed she looked around for her daughter. She looked for about two minutes until Naruto spoke up.

"Umm… Hitomi-sama who is that hanging onto your dress?" Hitomi looked behind her and saw a very nervous Hinata latched onto her dress. Gently pulling her free she placed her next to Naruto's bed and began the introductions. Naruto found it a little odd that she was hiding like that but not being one to judge as he himself hated being judged.

"Just –san is fine Naruto-kun when we are not in public or around other Hyugas. Anyway this Naruto-kun, is my beautiful daughter Hinata-chan, the one who found you and in turned saved your life, so she is the angel." Hinata blushed a deep red at her mother's introduction and began playing with her fingers with her head held low to hide her embarrassment. Naruto wanting to be friendly as possible jumped down off the bed landing on all fours. Standing up slowly he introduced himself happily while wagging his tail.

"Um… Hello Hinata-sama, my name is Naruto Uzumaki and um… t-thanks for saving my life, it was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me." Naruto bowed very low which caused his little ears to point directly at Hinata who was still blushing like crazy. Curious as to what his ears felt like Hinata gathered her courage just enough to have a gentle rub. Naruto jumped back from the sudden touch but quickly realised that she didn't mean him any harm.

"I'm s-sorry Naruto-san, I-I didn't mean t-to… I-I'm sorry…" Hinata's voice was soft and caring although by the sound of it she thought that she had done something wrong. Naruto regaining his posture, walked towards the girl who saved him and slightly lowered his head and moved his tail in front of him.

"It's ok Hinata-sama you just startled me. I'm… I'm not use to people wanting to touch me… nicely. So if you want to you can touch my ears and tail. I think a lot of other kids find them cool because they also like to touch them." After a few seconds Hinata stepped slowly forward and brought her hand to his head. Gently, she began to rub them with her fingers. They felt soft, almost like small furry silk. As Hinata continued to 'pet' Naruto, Hitomi noticed a changed in Naruto's stance, he seemed more relaxed and far less tense, then to both her and Hinata's surprise, Naruto made a very low and peaceful growl in the back of his throat which almost sounded like he was humming. Hinata thinking she did something wrong quickly removed her hand and took a step back and grabbed hold of her mother's dress again.

Naruto's ears gave a quick flick in several directions from the sudden lack of attention and Naruto raised his head. "Th… That felt kind of nice Hinata-sama… Thank you." Naruto said with a smile. He then once again stood straight and returned his tail behind him, which slowly moved left to right.

"Oh… I-I thought that I h-hurt you... um… N-Naruto-san, you don't h-have to call me –sama e-either if you don't w-want." Hinata suddenly began even more nervous if that was possible and lowered her head again. "Um… N-Naruto-san, i-if you don't m-mind me a-asking. Why d-do you have fox e-ears and a tail?" Hinata expected Naruto to either yell at her or get embarrassed by her asking such a personal question. But to her surprise when she finally lifted her head… Naruto was smiling at her instead.

"Well that's the awesome part, you see according to the old man I am the last from a clan who possessed a kekkei genkai that allowed them to take on some of the appearance and attributes of an animal. Mine just happened to be a fox! Which is cool because I like foxes… I don't know why I just do. Anyway because of my kekkei genkai I am able to hear really well with my ears, I have an awesome sense of smell and I have this here tail." Naruto proclaimed point to each peace of his body as he spoke. To Hitomi, Naruto right now resembled the little kid he should have been allowed to be. He also seemed quite proud of his fox features even if they do get him in trouble or maybe it was because he thinks that his parents were like him.

"So um… Hinata-san now that I've shown you my kekkei genkai… I've heard that the Hyuga have one too, so I was wondering if I can um… see yours?" Hinata blushed deep red again but not from embarrassment but from someone actually wanting her to show them something. She had never done that before as no one really wanted to talk to her and therefore she found it difficult on what to do, she was very confused. Hitomi however had a hard time not laughing from the classic 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours.' scene.

"Go on dear, show Naruto your Byakugan, it's alright nothing bad will happen because of it." Hinata slowly edged forward towards Naruto and looked at him directly in the eyes. Gathering the necessary charka and performing the handsigns Hinata attempted to activate her Byakugan.

"Byakugan!" Hinata waited in anticipation, but when nothing happened and her Byakugan didn't activate Hinata sighed dejectedly and began to cry slightly because to her it felt like she failed once again. She felt both weak and embarrassed. Weak, because she wasn't strong enough to activate her Byakugan, even though she had done it twice before. Embarrassed, because Naruto really wanted to see her Byakugan and she failed. She began to cry a little harder and lowered her head in shame but before Hitomi could encourage her and tell her that it was alright and she should try again, Naruto stepped forward and grabbed her gently by the hands. He then comfortingly moved his tail to her face and wiped the tears off. To which she gave a small 'eep' in surprise.

"It's ok Hinata-san, try again. I've failed many things in my life but I never give up and will always try again till I get it right. I believe you can it so all you have to do is also believe that you can do it, So try again, ok?" Naruto gave Hinata a big grin and she proceeded to blush from his faith in her and gave a small grin back. After her sniffling slowly ended she then gave a slight nod followed by a very quite ok.

Hitomi marvelled at not only by the fact that he just gave her a little courage but also by what Naruto said. Anyone who was abused as much as he was shouldn't have a heart at all, let alone be that kind and understanding. She found herself smiling just like he was when Hinata retried activating her Byakugan, this time succeeding.

"I did it!" Hinata gave a small yell of happiness as she once again activated her Byakugan, which was accompanied by Naruto making a strange 'yip' noise follow by a fist thrust up into the air.

"See I told you you could do it Hinata-san!" To Hitomi it looked like Naruto was almost as happy as Hinata about her Byakugan if not more. _'Such a kind soul wasted on such a pathetic and ungrateful village.'_

Naruto moved closely to Hinata and inspected her now changed eyes. He noted that not only had they changed to a bright white colour but she also now had pupils even though they were also white he could still see them. He also saw that the veins on the sides of her eyes were now very pronounced. "Wow Hinata! Your eyes are soooo cool! They are even prettier then before!" Naruto gave another big smile and Hinata found herself feeling light headed. '_My… My eyes are pretty?'_

Hinata seemed a little dazed and Naruto wondered if she was feeling sick. Gently nudging her with his tail seemed to snap her out of it and she gave a small grin and blushed as well as apologising for her spacing out.

"Na its ok Hinata, I do it all the time. So what special ability does you Byakugan eyes give you… Is that how you say it?" Naruto tilted his head slightly and awaited a response, but this time instead of Hinata, Hitomi answered him. Mainly because her daughter still seemed a little out of it, maybe it was time for a rest after all this as it seemed to be a little to much for her right now.

"Yes you did say it correctly. As for what it does Naruto-kun the Byakugan has many special abilities, although not as physically visible as your kekkei genkai is, the Byakugan is still very powerful. It's first ability is that is provides us with an almost 360 degree vision around us, as well as telescopic vision which allows us to see over great distances. With it we can also see through any object, as long as it isn't constructed or reinforced with charka. With brings me to it's next ability. With the Byakugan we are able to see charka around us as well as within anything, which includes the charka network. Utilising these abilities we can combine them along with our fighting style the Gentle Fist to close off and shut down both organs and charka points in any body. Effectively defeating an enemy without any exterior damage by completely destroying them from the inside." Hitomi finished her small lecture and turned to see a wide eyed Naruto staring at her.

"Um… I'm really sorry Hitomi-san but um… I didn't understand even half of that… You had a lot of big words an-" Naruto was cut off however and the hospital doors practically flew off their hinges as an extremely angry council member, a slightly ticked off Hiashi and a calm as ever Neji walked into the ward.

"What is the meaning of this Hitomi-sama! How dare you give away valuable Hyuga knowledge to this…" turning his gaze to Naruto " this monstrosity!" this however didn't get the desired response as Hitomi just turned to him with a death glare and replied with a sickly sweet voice.

"Please leave Hitaki-san, this is a private discussion between myself, my daughter and Naruto-kun. Oh and if you refer to him as that again, I will have you sent to the branch family." Hitaki visibly paled at this and quickly turned around and walked out muttering an assortment of curses under his breath, which only Naruto heard. Upon hearing a few of them he frowned slightly.

"Um… Hitomi-san, what does 'stuck up whore' mean?" Hitomi turned her head to face him so fast that everyone around her thought that she might have snapped her neck. Asking him where he heard such a thing, he replied honestly. "Um… that angry guy… Hitaki was it? Yer he said it under his breath as he left the room." Naruto had no idea what it meant but quickly jumped back when he felt her anger rise to inhuman levels.

"Oh he is so dead when I get my hands on him!" Hiashi, fearing for the life of one of his advisors, closed the ward's doors and walked over to his wife to calm her down. Naruto found himself staring intently at the man, which seemed to be Hitomi's husband, if the way he calmed her down was proof to that. After releasing his now calmed down wife, Hiashi turned his gaze to Naruto. When Naruto met his eyes he froze, they were cold and uncaring, very similar to those he saw in the people who attack him. Backing down slowly and bending low to the ground like before, the fear he had when he woke returned.

That is however until Hiashi's eyes changed. They were no longer cold and uncaring, but soft and full of love, similar to the eyes of his wife. Naruto relaxed somewhat but was still ready to run if Hiashi lunged at him. "It's alright Naruto-kun, I won't hurt you. I just have to keep a certain image up when around anyone other then my family. I'm sorry if I caused you distress just now." Naruto, relieved that he wasn't going to be attacked stood up straight again and looked at the man with a smile. Hiashi returned the smile with a small one of his own then turned to face Neji.

"Neji-kun, I want you to take Hinata-chan and Naruto-kun to the Hyuga Gardens and watch over them until we arrive there. Hitomi-chan and I need to talk about a few things. I also want you to get one of the servants to get some clothes for him to wear as he can't go around wearing hospital cloths all day." Nodding his head slightly Neji introduced himself to Naruto and lead them out of the hospital towards the garden. After they left Hiashi turned to his wife to see her grinning at him with an eyebrow raised.

"What?" Hiashi asked completely unaware of what she was smiling about.

"See told you didn't I? He isn't the fox at all. I know you were watching from just outside, so when did you realise that he wasn't the fox?" Hiashi returned her smile now knowing on what she was talking about but it quickly changed to a frown.

"No… he isn't the fox, I realised that when I saw the look in his eyes when he first woke up… so frightened and afraid of you and that you would hit him and his reaction when you hugged him… I… I wish I have known about this sooner, I might have been able to do something. Damn those stupid villagers!" Hitomi feeling that her husband was getting a little too angry, held him tight for comfort.

"Well he's here now so therefore we can make up for all the lost time. But first um… didn't you release him from hospital a little too soon. I mean he just woke up an hour ago." Hiashi just smiled and handed her the latest doctor's report.

"According to this he was one hundred percent physically after about 3 days after he first came here. They just had to check how mentally stable he was after he woke up. After watching him and how he reacted to this, I believe that he is sane… just scared from what's happen to him so far. Those scars will heal in time, but I do believe that his behaviour has been permanently changed because of it. How much I don't know but I do know that it has, his animalistic 'submission' and his admission that he believed he was a monster is proof of that. As for making up for lost time… that's what I came to talk about. The elders have made a few decisions that are 'best' for the clan." The way Hiashi spoke the last sentence told her he was in his 'serious' mode and proceeded to follow him out of the hospital to a more private section, away from prying ears and eyes.


	4. Chapter 3: A friend for life

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's affiliated products. I do however own any original story within this fanfiction.

Chapter 3: A friend for life

Neji slowly led an excited Naruto and a nervous Hinata to the Hyuga gardens. Naruto was now dressed in a pair of white pants and a blue T-shirt, which much to his joy was given to him to keep, his first gift. The servant who had helped him dress had to cut a hole in the back of his pants though, to provide a spot for his tail to go through. Upon passing through the last door out of the main house, Naruto's eyes went wide and his nose gave a slight twitch. It wasn't just the amazing view that stunned him, but also the onrush of scents. Naruto had a hard time sorting them all out, but luckily for him they were all nice smells. Naruto took slow steps out of the house and down the three steps to the garden, all the while looking quickly from side to side and trying to take in the view before him.

The garden stretched for a good three aches, all masterfully crafted and set up into four distinct sections. The first section was what looked to be the 'picnic' area, it was surrounded by flat cut grass and had large trees with white and pink flowers above tables. It looked quite relaxing. The second section contained a few tables next to a six foot hedge maze, the maze was then surrounded by a square of cherry blossom trees. The third section looked to be more of the relaxation area, as it had small flat areas with low trees with white flowers and had a small river running through the middle of it into a rock pond. The pond was filled with all sorts of exotic fish and had a few lilies floating on its surface. It was also full of hedge statues of many different animals. The last section is what really caught Naruto's eyes. It was by far the larges section of the garden and had good reason to be, because the last section was what looked like a walkthrough forest with wooden boardwalks trailing throughout it. The trees were huge and must have been many decades old, despite how much Naruto thought it would be fun to climb them. Something told him that it wouldn't be a good idea, they looked too well cared for to be scratched by his claws.

The garden is what you would have expected for royalty so Naruto wasn't too surprised, but he was anxious however to run around the whole place as fast as he could and see as much as possible. He turned to look at Hinata and Neji and asked if they wanted to play with him. He was really hoping they would because he loved to play but every time he got the chance to play with kids his age, their parent always got between them. Neji was the first to reply as Hinata was still too nervous to answer.

"I am sorry Naruto-san, but my duty is just to look after Hinata-sama. I will watch you both from the porch." Naruto was slightly disheartened that Neji didn't want to play, but he quickly cheered up when Hinata agreed to.

"I-I will play w-with you if you d-don't mind, Naruto-san… I promise I won't m-mess up." Hinata was extremely happy that someone wanted to play with her, but was still worried that Naruto would find her weird like all the other kids she knew. But instead of rejecting her he gave a huge smile and jumped slightly and made another 'yip' noise like she heard before.

"Alright! Lets go play Hinata-san!" Naruto grabbed Hinata by her hand, which made her give a slight blush at the contact, and gently pulled her along with him, while he ran looking for the nearest area where they could play some games. Neji just stood on the porch watching them both with a plain expression on his face. He was however wondering how it was possible for someone that just woke up from a coma could have that amount of energy.

With Hitomi and Hiashi

"… so as you can tell the council wants Naruto-kun out of the Hyuga complex as soon as possible or they will proceed with their threats, they also have made a few attempts to overrule my authority and arranged for him be 'removed' from the complex in other ways… So even though I don't like it I believe that Naruto-kun should be taken to the Hokage before anything bad happens to him… like last week before he came here. I'm not sure what the Hokage could possibly do as the council has been making Naruto-kun's life difficult from the day he was born, but I'm sure that he could arrange a place for him to stay a well as Anbu to make sure he is left in peace… I… I just wish their was something we could do about it, but as I just told you what the elders threatened to do… I can't allow that to happen, even if we can't have Naruto-kun stay here." Hiashi finished his 'little' explanation and turned to his wife who was clearly upset, if the tears running down her face were any indication.

"I… I just think it's so unfair that he is treated this way! What has he ever done for them except save there miserable hides by keeping the fox sealed. What does he get for that? He gets abused and neglected all because they think he is the fox because he is a hanyou! Most of Konoha has never seen a hanyou before Naruto, but we were all told the stories about them when the tailed demons were first hunted for their power. It seemed because of the lack of understanding of sealing back then often caused them to slightly merge with the demon they held, but Naruto-kun became a hanyou because of the amount of demonic charka his body had to deal with while the fox was being sealed. All the stories of hanyou's that we were told depicted them as kind and generous beings and because of their power they were able to helped those in need. All this was explained by the Hokage but no one listened… and then because they wouldn't listen he had to declare that Naruto-kun's fox attributes as a bloodline to keep him safe. But… But even that didn't work, and now the elders wants Naruto to leave the first people who showed him kindness, he will never be able to see us again because of what they threatened…" Hitomi's anger towards the council and sadness for what Naruto constantly endured was too much for her and her tears increased. Hiashi held his wife close as she cried and spoke comforting words into her ear. After about five minutes however an idea came to his mind. To which he gave a small chuckle. Hitomi looked up to her husband with a look that screamed 'and what is funny about this?'.

"Hmm, the council and the elders are banning Naruto-kun from visiting the Hyuga clan or staying with us correct?" To which Hitomi nodded her head. "Naruto-kun is an Uzumaki, and even though they originally came from whirlpool country the council would never admit to it because it would bring up questions about Naruto's other linage. And the Uzumaki clan is extinct except for Naruto-kun right? Making him the head of the Uzumaki clan?" To which Hitomi nodded again, although this one was slightly more enthusiastic, showing her interest. "Well then, we will just have to have regular clan head meetings between the Hyuga clan and the Uzumaki clan. They can't object to that as it will be classed as an official meeting not a visit." Hiashi gave a wide smile as his idea was met by heavy agreeability, curtesy of his wife's mouth on his. After about twenty minutes of making out with his wife and just as it was getting interesting Hiashi was rudely disturbed by a branch member knocking on his door. Signing quite loudly because of the interruption, Hiashi gently lifted his wife off him and opened the office door.

"Forgive my intrusion Hiashi-sama, but your brother Hizashi-sama has asked that you speak with him at once. He is waiting for you on the porch to the Hyuga gardens. I believe he wishes to speak to you about the fox boy known as Naruto." The branch member finished his message with a low bow before dismissing himself.

Hiashi and Hitomi straightened their cloths and fixed there slightly messed hair, then proceeded to head towards the Hyuga gardens.

With Naruto and Hinata

Naruto was currently running and leaping on all fours in a rush to get away from Hinata. They weren't currently playing any specific game, Hinata was just trying to catch Naruto by the tail. But it seemed that Naruto was just a little to fast for Hinata, because every time she got close to him, he would bounce away in another direction just missing her grasp. That was until Naruto decided to try and wait until the last minute before jumping away as he didn't expect anything to distract him from jumping away. So when his stomach decided to make a very loud rumble he was temporarily distracted from the chase when his mind wandered to his empty stomach and Hinata grabbed him on his tail. Brought back out of his thoughts of food, he realised that Hinata had caught him.

"Hehe, you got me Hinata-san! I knew you could do it eventually!" Naruto gave a big smile and congratulated Hinata on how quick she is to be able to catch him. Hinata proceeded to blush from the praise and lower her head slightly to hide her embarrassment.

"I-It was only because y-your stomach growled, it distracted y-you. Are you hungry?" Hinata's voice was still quite as she was still embarrassed, but the signs that she was concerned for him were evident in her voice. It was something that Naruto rarely ever got from anyone. _'She… She's concerned for me?'_

"That maybe be so Hinata-san, but I still think that you are very fast! And… yer I'm a little hungry, but its ok. I'll find something to eat later." Usually when Naruto was hungry he just went and found the nearest garbage can and looked for food scraps or tried to find a fruit tree and grab some fruit. So it was a little surprising when Hinata offered to get him some food from the Hyuga kitchen. He declined offcourse saying that he would find a fruit tree later and eat from it.

"Um… Naruto-san, there is a-apple trees in the gardens, if you want I can get some h-help to get them for us." Hinata gently grabbed Naruto by his arm and led him into the picnic area of the Hyuga gardens and to the small grove of apple trees. Double checking that it was okay for him to eat them and declining her offer to get someone to help Naruto bent down low before jumping high and latching himself onto the tree with his clawed hands and feet. Hinata yelled for him to watch out because he would fall, but stopped her pleas when she noticed that he wasn't falling, to which she asked him why.

Naruto turned to look at her, and released his hold of one of his hands flexing his claws. "I can use my claws to hold me up, Hinata-san. It's really helpful, and I love to climb trees. Now watch this, I'm gonna get us some apples!" Naruto's enthusiasm made Hinata giggle slightly, he was kind of funny and he seemed enjoy making her laugh. She watched on in amazement as he again bent low and quickly crawled up the tree and lunged himself into the air twisting a few times then lashing out in several directions with his hands, almost as if he was clawing the air itself. But as he began to fall, Hinata noticed that five apples along the path that he jumped were also falling. And just as Naruto landed, so did the apples.

Neji watched from his place on the porch in wonder of the ability and control Naruto had over his body, especially his claws. Because all five apples that landed were cut clean from the tree by their stalks. While Neji was trying to figure out how Naruto could do something like that he failed to notice a man walk close up behind him and place a hand on his shoulder.

"Well that manoeuvre was quite impressive. They look to be having a lot of fun, don't they Neji-kun." Neji although he jumped slightly at the unexpected contact relaxed somewhat as he heard his fathers voice, and decided to ask his father a few things about Naruto.

"Yes they do look to be having fun." That is if the constant giggling and laughing coming from the two eating children could vouch for it. Neji's father Hizashi however was a little saddened by his son's response, he seemed way to fixated on his duty as Hinata's guardian for a child his age and rarely joined in the fun. "But… I do have a few questions father. Why does Naruto-san both look and act like a fox? I have been watching him and… the way he moves and bounces around and the sounds he makes all resemble movements of a fox. So why is he like that?"

Hizashi thought carefully on how to word his explanation to his son. He couldn't very well just say that it was his bloodline because that wouldn't make sense but he also couldn't say it was because of the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed within him. But after about five minutes he was able to answer his son. "Well Neji-kun, as you have probably heard already, Naruto-kun possesses a bloodline that gives him the attributes of an animal, his being a fox. Now that explains the fox ears and tail, as well as his longer then usual teeth and sharp claws. But as for his instincts on how to move as well as his movements themselves, I do believe that most of it is caused by his bloodline as his muscles have obviously been changed because of his bloodline, which allows him to move on all fours better as well as make those odd 'yip' noises of his. But it may also be because he was rarely shown any different and could have just let his primal way of thinking influence the way he does everything." Hizashi thought that his explanation was a little much for a six year old but Neji nodded his head and thanked his father, seeming to understand him.

Hizashi and Neji turned back to the two children and watched Naruto peel Hinata's apple with his claws much to her delight as she didn't really like the skin. Naruto however not being nearly as fussy simply cut his apples in fours and swallowed them, core and all. Hinata never seeing someone eat an apple that fast let along the apple's core stared at him wide eyed as he did the same thing with the other three apples. Swallowing a total of four apples in under a minute.

Naruto asked if she wanted some more apples but said she was fine, so he just sat next to her quietly waiting for her to finish. All the while swishing his tail back and fourth, which caused Hinata to giggle whenever it touched her. Naruto liked having Hinata laugh so seeing such a perfect opportunity Naruto quickly jumped up and pounced on Hinata and pinned her down with his hands. Neji thinking Naruto was about to attack his cousin jumped up, a kunai already in his hand. He did think that Naruto was a little wild but attacking Hinata was too far. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked back as his father put a hand on his shoulder then pointed back to Hinata and Naruto. Looking back he then noticed that Naruto was not attacking Hinata but tickling her with his tail, which made Hinata squeal out in laughter and try desperately to get away.

After about a minute of non-stop laughing Naruto decided it was best to leave her alone to catch her breath. Smiling the whole time Naruto released his hold on Hinata and jumped back allowing her to get up. It took Hinata about three minutes to get her bearings and she slowly stood up with a smile that almost matched Naruto's.

"Now its m-my turn to tickle you Naruto-san" She said with a giggle as she ran after the all ready running Naruto. He wasn't running on all fours so he was slower then before and she was keeping up with him. Hizashi watched with a smile as the two kids played together, laughing and smiling the whole time. He had never ever seen his niece like this before and just seeing how happy Hinata was made him happy also. Glancing at his son, he hoped that Naruto would able to be just a good friend to Neji as he was Hinata. As all Neji needed to break that stonic exterior was a friend, and Naruto might be the one to be that friend. He was nocked out of his thoughts when he heard his brother and his brother's wife walk through the door.

Hiashi and Hitomi turned to Hizashi and greeted him warmly to which he returned. Hizashi filled them in on what Naruto and Hinata had been doing while their gaze shifted slowly to Hinata and Naruto and had to stifle a laugh at what they saw. Naruto was hanging onto a tree branch for his dear life as Hinata was holding onto her life except she was hanging onto his tail weighing him down. The adults didn't feel the need to intervene however because the ground to Hinata's feet was only about twenty centimetres. Being that Naruto and his tail made up for the distance to make it safe. A few seconds before Naruto slipped however he quickly grabbed his tail with his hand and heaved it up, pulling Hinata up as he dropped down.

Naruto landed upright and held out his arms as Hinata fell gracefully into them. Naruto laughed as he gently put a very shaken Hinata down on the grass. Having been lunched two meters in the air can do that to a little four year old girl. The four Hyuga on the porch however were in a similar state of shock to Hinata except it was mainly because of Naruto's strength in holding himself up while lifting her into the air, he must have been twice as strong as the other kids his age. They threw this down to an extra of his 'bloodline'.

"Hehe, sorry Hinata-chan I didn't mean to scare you like that, I'll be more careful next time, ok?" Hinata however entered a new state of shock at what she had heard.

'_He… He called me Hinata-_chan_… b-but you only call girls that when you consider them to be… a close friend… does Naruto-san consider me his friend?' _Hinata was pulled out of her thoughts when she realised Naruto was staring intently at her. She apologise with a bright red face about her spacing out. "Um… N-Naruto-san… I was… sort of wondering… um, y-you called me… H-Hinata-chan… and um... I was sort of wondering w-why?"

"Oh, um… sorry about that, I… I just thought that's what you do when someone's your best friend… Well if, I got that wrong I'm sorry, the old man only gave me a few books to learn how to speak so I might be wrong. I just… I just thought that we could be friends." Naruto said hopefully, although fully expecting rejection just like every other kid he met. Hinata just stared at Naruto wide eyed as his words slowly sunk in.

"D-Do you think as m-me as your… best f-friend?" Hinata's voice was quite and she was blushing a red that would put tomatoes to shame, although there was that same hopeful sound that Naruto's voice had.

"Well… of course Hinata-chan, you are the first person to ever be so kind to me and save me, and your parents seem to be really nice too. So, I was… wondering if you wanted to be friends. I promise to be the best friend ever." Naruto proclaimed while thrusting his fist into the air as seemed to be his trademark. Hinata however was almost brought to tears at the thought of having a friend and had a lot of trouble speaking up. After a few seconds however she saw Naruto's ears lower and his tail stopped moving back and forth.

'_Oh no! He… He thinks I don't want to be his friend… I have to say something… come on Hinata, say something.' _She was rewarded for her efforts as her mouth slowly opened and saying exactly what she wanted to, just maybe a little too loud which caused her to blush even more. "OFCOURSE NARUTO-KUN, I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND" Naruto's ears instantly perked up, and his tail began wagging furiously. Naruto then proceeded to give Hinata a big hug while jumping up and down 'yipping' and shouting:

"I HAVE MY FIRST FRIEND! HINATA-CHAN'S MY BEST FRIEND!" The little show of friendship between Naruto and Hinata caused everyone on the porch to almost cry except Neji and Hiashi who just smiled happily. After Naruto slowly calmed down he released Hinata from his hold. When he did this however he misjudged the length of his claws and scratched Hinata, only slightly, but deep just above her elbow. Her shriek notified him that something was wrong and when his nose caught the scent of Hinata's blood he looked horrified at where he had just cut her. Hinata's tears burst from her eyes as the pain registered in her mind, and Naruto thought he was falling into complete darkness as the memories of what happened last time this happened resurfaced in his mind.

"_YOU LITTLE DEMON! GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!" _

Wondering what would happen next he turned and looked at the four adults on the porch that were staring at him intently, although Naruto wasn't sure what their expression were from the distance he was at, he was sure they were angry. His fears were proven true when he saw Hitomi rush from the porch towards them. Turning back to a shaking Hinata who was clutching her arm, Naruto tried desperately to think of something he could do. _'What have I done… I hurt Hinata-chan, my first friend and I hurt her… I really am a monster…I'm a monster who hurts his friends…' _As he looked at Hinata with feelings of utter guilt at injuring his new friend he remembered something he use to do to his own wounds that would heal them quickly.

Jumping quickly behind Hinata he gently grabbed her arm and pulled it back towards him, feeling him grab her arm from behind startled Hinata and made her jump slightly while releasing her hold on her arm. Naruto then preceded to move her arm towards his mouth, when close enough he began to lightly and gently lick the wound clean. He didn't like that taste of her blood but it had to be done, and within seconds the same thing that happen to him, happen to her. The wound on her arm slowly stopped bleeding, and began to slowly close over. By the time Hitomi reached her daughter she stood shocked at what she saw, the cut on Hinata's arm was almost fully healed and continued without a problem until it was fully closed over, healed without a scar. Hinata now no longer in pain, and Hitomi wanting to question him on how he did that, turned to Naruto. What they saw reminded them of when he first woke up. He was once again bending low as was his show of submission. He was shaking slightly obviously very upset of what he did, even if it was an accident. Hitomi took a step forward to try and calm him down and explain to him that she knew it was an accident, but as she did step forward Naruto stepped back.

"I-I'm really s-sorry Hin-Hinata-chan… Hitomi-san, f-for being s-such a monster…" Naruto was tearing up as everything slowly caught up to his racing mind and began to sink in. _'I have to go… this is no place for a monster…' _Without a word or a chance to catch him, Naruto sped off into the Hyuga gardens looking for a place to either hide or leave through. To him he had done the worst thing possible, hurt someone who showed him so much kindness and acceptance without thinking about how much of a monster he was like all the other villagers. As he ran, being is the panicked state he was, he was unable to hear the pleas from Hitomi and Hinata yelling for him to come back, that they knew it was only an accident and not his fault.

Hiashi, Hizashi and Neji caught up to Hitomi and Hinata and all began looking around with their Byakugans to find him. He was quick when he wanted to be, as he was almost out of their range. Hizashi spotted the little hanyou trembling and crying under a bush to the far right of the hedge maze and began to direct everyone to him. He noticed that something was off with Naruto's hands, his claws looked like they had been capped with pieces of wood. Upon reaching the entrance to the maze he stopped and looked towards his family.

"He… Did you see the look in his eyes… when he realised he hurt Hinata-chan. He honestly believes that he is a monster, doesn't he? But why would a child think that of themselves, from what I saw while he was playing with Hinata-chan, he really liked and seemed proud of his 'fox features'" Everyone looked at him then back towards the direction Naruto was while contemplating how to explain to Hizashi just how bad Naruto's life was, it was Hitomi who eventually spoke up.

"I can tell you what details I have found out from a little research but from what I can personally vouch for, Naruto-kun is beaten and abused on a regular basic by pretty much the whole village. As far as physical damage goes they dish out whatever they see fit, and he has never lifted a finger in defence, he heals from most of these wounds but it's the mental damage that really gets to him. Could you imagine Hizashi-kun living everyday in fear of someone trying to kill you, hurt you, while walking through a village where they all despise your very existence? Naruto-kun seems to have suffered through that every day of his life, and his only question he ever asked these people was 'Why?'." By the end of her short explanation, Hizashi was almost brought to tears and he now realised on why Naruto thought of himself as a monster, because all the villagers everyday say that he is one, and now he has started to believe them.

"We need to help him, and tell him it is ok." But before Hizashi could take a step into the maze he felt a small hand grab onto his pants. Looking down he saw Hinata staring up to him with watery eyes. Nodding in silent agreement and understanding, Hizashi stepped back and allowed Hinata to walk through into the maze, she was after all probably the best choice to calm Naruto down, as he seemed to highly value his new friendship with her if his little spectacle before he scratched her was any indication. Hitomi stepped forward after a while and also began to walk in the maze to go to Naruto. She was asked why she also was going in, to which she replied that Naruto needed to know that she nor any of the adults were angry at him and that they all knew it was an accident. Receiving nods of agreement she turned back around and walked into the maze but not before leaving instructions that she wanted lunch ready for them all before she came back out.

Naruto sat under a random bush in the maze whimpering, insulting himself and asking himself why he was such a monster. All the while the only thoughts on his mind were the image of Ino's mother yelling at him for hurting her daughter, and the look on Hinata's face when he hurt her. He never saw Hitomi's face when she came over to him but he assumed that she looked just like Ino's mother did. "Why?" Naruto asked himself with a face full of tears. "Why do I always hurt everyone… maybe the villagers are right… maybe I did hurt lots of people, maybe I just don't remember it…" While thinking these hurtful thoughts of himself his mind soon turned to Hinata. "She… she was my first friend and I hurt her… why do I always hurt everyone… I-I didn't mean to… why does nothing in my life ever go like I want it to?" Just then Naruto's nose caught onto a familiar scent.

"Don't… don't come near me Hinata-chan, I might hurt you again… I'm… I'm sorry I'm such a monster who hurts his friends…" Naruto just heard more footsteps as Hinata slowly walked towards him. He turned his face away as she bent down and crawled into the bush he was hiding in, he didn't want to have to face her and she shouldn't have to look at a monster. What she did though was completely unexpected and Naruto froze up like last time, she hugged him. "Ple-Please don't Hinata-chan, I hurt you… I don't deserve to be your friend…" Hinata's response was to just hug him tighter.

"You aren't a monster Naruto-kun, you are a fox boy and you are my best friend. I know that you didn't mean to hurt me, and you felt bad and then healed me with your licking… so I forgive you." Hinata's voice was kind and sweet and Naruto found it hard to answer her back as his tongue felt like it was stuck in his throat. The same feelings that he had when Hitomi hugged him returned, except this time it was different, this time he knew exactly what he felt. This time it felt like the hug of a true friend. Like last time it was too overwhelming and Naruto began to once again cry, while telling Hinata how sorry he was for hurting her and thanking her for forgiving him. This all stopped however when he heard Hitomi call to him from a few bushes away, she had obviously heard him.

"Naruto Uzumaki! Come here this instant!" Hitomi's voice sounded very angry and Naruto knew what would come, so pulling himself out of Hinata's hug and dropping low to the ground he slowly crawled out of the bushes to meet his fate. As he emerged from the bush he found himself face-to-feet with Hitomi. Slowly looking up to see her face while still keeping his head low, Naruto expected to see her face distorted with fury, just like all the others. But instead he did see an angry face but Hitomi's face looked angry because of disappointment. Disappointment in him maybe, but why?

"Naruto Uzumaki! Do you always tell the truth?" Naruto nodded while still keeping his head low. "Do you never go back on your word?" Again Naruto nodded. "And do you always keep your promises?" Again Naruto nodded and Hitomi bent low so that she was almost touching his nose with hers. Naruto fearful of what was about to come stared up at her with teary eyes. "Then answer me this Naruto Uzumaki, if you always keep your promises, never go back on your word and always tell the truth then why did you lie to me?" Naruto's eyes widened at that, she wasn't angry that he had hurt Hinata, but angry because he lied. But he never lied to her… did he?

"I… I don't understand Hitomi-san… I-I never lied to you… please tell me what I have done… please…" Naruto's tears for the thousandth time in his life fell freely from his face, he was so confused. The villagers always accused him of things, and now even Hitomi was doing the same thing. Standing back up tall Hitomi looked down at the submitting hanyou and shook her head.

"Oh but you did lie Naruto-kun, you promised me that you wouldn't ever refer to yourself as a monster remember." Hitomi gave Naruto a little time to think back to when he woke up at the hospital and as the realisation hit him Naruto's eyes widened. "See, you remember now don't you Naruto-kun, so what do you say when you lie to someone?" Naruto had to think hard on this one, no one ever asked him on what he should say to someone when he lied. It took him a few minutes but he finally realised it, it was the same few words that he said almost everyday.

"I'm sorry…" Naruto said in a very quite voice.

"Sorry for what Naruto-kun?" Hitomi quipped back at him, sounding quite motherly.

"I'm sorry Hitomi-san for breaking my promise and calling myself a monster…" Hitomi smiled and bent low again this time picking Naruto up by under his armpits and hoisting him into the air.

"You are such a silly boy Naruto-kun, none of us adults were angry that you hurt Hinata-chan as we could all clearly see it was an accident. And plus, you also healed the wound. It seems as though your healing ability is also passed on through your saliva, which I might add is a wondrous and truly amazing ability to have. Now come on, we are going back into the Hyuga mansion, we need to get you some lunch. You're bound to starving after being in a coma for a week." Hitomi pulled the small pieces of wood he had stuck to his fingers off and turned to the bush where Naruto had emerged from and called for her daughter. Waiting until Hinata had crawled out of the bushes, she took her daughter by the hand, and Hitomi walked back out of the hedge maze with Naruto in one arm and Hinata's hand in her the other. Hinata whispered to her mother that Naruto had grabbed some apples down from the apples tree to feed them both but her mother just smiled and said that he looked like he was still hungry.

Upon arriving at the dining room Naruto's mouth and nose, almost hit the floor. Upon the table was a vast array of sandwiches, pork cuts and salads. Although it wasn't actually that much, to Naruto it was a banquet for a king. Hitomi, realising that Naruto was drooling everywhere, slowly closed his mouth and placed him in his designated seat, on the left next to Hinata. Hizashi and Neji sat on the other side of the table while Hitomi and Hiashi sat next to Hinata. After a servant placed a few things on each of their plates, they gave a short thank you then dug into their lunch. Well what you could call 'digging' in for a Hyuga, to Naruto it almost looked like they were eating with the Fire Lord.

After a few moments of eating together and talking, Hitomi looked over to Naruto to see how he was doing, worried that he might feel slightly uncomfortable and not be eating. He did look very nervous but to her surprise she couldn't see a thing on his plate, thinking that the servant purposely left him out, she picked up a few sandwiches and put them onto his plate. Naruto thanked her and she returned to her own seat. After a few more minutes she looked back only to notice that his plate was once again empty.

"Naruto-kun, where did your lunch go?" She asked quite curious as to where it disappeared.

"Um… I'm not sure if it's the right word, but according to the old man, it went to my stomach, just like the first six sandwiches." Hitomi's eyes widened at this and she almost dropped her fork.

"You… You mean you have already eaten ten sandwiches…" Hitomi's voice was full of shock when she spoke, and hearing what she said the others turned to Naruto with open mouths. Nervous and thinking he did something wrong Naruto apologised to them, which only caused them to stare at him even more, that is until Hizashi burst out in laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! HE'S JUST LIKE HIS FATHER!..." Realising exactly what he said Hizashi quickly covered his mouth. But it was too late and Naruto had heard, Hitomi just gave Hizashi a death glare because of his foolish mistake and Hiashi muttered something about brothers and their big mouths.

Naruto looked up from his place and stared at Hizashi excitedly, his tail moving quickly. "You… You knew my father! What was he like? Did he look like me? What animal did his bloodline make him like? Where is he? Is here in Konoha? Does he know me? Do I know him?" Naruto's quick paced questions were expected by the adults especially the two where he asked if they knew each other. Naruto stared at Hizashi as patiently as he could while Hizashi thought of a way to explain the boy's father to him.

"Your father was a great man to this village Naruto-kun, sadly he is no longer with us, he died the night of the Nine-Tailed Fox's attack, I wish I was able to tell you your father's name but for safety reasons I can't tell you." Naruto looked a little disheartened at this, but as soon as Hizashi continued his talk he perked back up. "He was a remarkable ninja though, one of the best and he was always busy with some of the hardest missions available. But somehow he always found time to spend with his wife, your mother." Hizashi watched with a smile as the hanyou in front of him was practically worshiping him because he was telling him a few facts about his parents. His grin also seemed to increase as he mentioned his mother. "As far as what he looked like, its safe to say you look quite like him, although there are a few things that you predominantly got from your mother. And as to what animal his bloodline gave him… well its also safe to say that his was a fox as well… except maybe for different reasons." Hizashi turned his gaze with a smile to a few female servants around them with faces blushing bright red. In Konoha, Naruto's father was considered a lady killer for one fact along, they pretty much all fainted whenever they were around him, and to have a crush on the Yellow Flash of Konoha was not an uncommon practice.

Naruto didn't get the 'different reasons' part as he was already over the moon in happiness that he was hearing about his parents. Something he thought would never happen to him. "Did you know my mother too?" Naruto's speech was incredibly fast paced and they had trouble understanding his short sentence but luckily they had already pre-empted his question. Naruto waited expectantly while looking at Hizashi, but Hizashi just said it was better for Hitomi to answer anything about his mother as she was her best friend.

"Well Naruto-kun, there is quite a lot to say about your mother as she was definitely quite the individual. She had long bright red hair, beautiful green eyes and the perfect figure. And you could also say that she was a fox like you and your father." Hitomi paused to see the slight amount of blood that seemed to trickle down each of the male servant's noses around them. "Unlike your father it is safe to say your mother's name as she wasn't well known outside of a few people and places. You mother's name was Kushina and she was quite the woman. Her personality was quite… colourful would be the right word, as she was always the loudest and most straight forward person you would ever meet and very much believed in truth. She also believed that people should value family, friends and loved ones above all, else even ninja duty. While quite revolutionary she did still find time to spend with your father both alone and on missions. They were quite the pair those two, almost inseparable. That is until the night of the Nine-Tailed Fox's attack… sadly the fox killed your father and your mother… except your mother died because of the incredible strain her body took when giving birth to you, while fighting off the effects of the fox's chakra." Hitomi's voice became quite as she mentioned her friend's death but seeing Naruto's ears slowly drop low she decided to add one final comment. "Even though your parent's both died Naruto-kun, they loved you very much. I still remember your mother chatting away about how much she couldn't wait for you to be born so she could hold you in her arms. And your father always went on about how much he wanted to teach you how to be the most powerful ninja you could be. They loved you so much Naruto-kun, and… and it was heartbreaking to many people that they died that awful night. But at least one good thing came from that night… your still here." Hitomi looked up to Naruto and saw him crying his heart out, thinking she had hurt him by bringing up his parents she walked over to him and gave him a hug. But what he said as she held him told her that his tears were tears of joy.

"They… they loved me… they really did… I… I wasn't abandoned… they loved me… I wasn't just left in an orphanage… I was wanted…" Happy tears flooded off Naruto's face and Hitomi continued to hold him until he stopped, she was a little upset to hear that he thought that his parent's abandoned him to the orphanage but she guessed that is was once again an idea he got from the stupid villagers. Hizashi and Hiashi were both pleased that Naruto had heard about his parents and they had managed to avoid any possible questions that could have meant that they would have had to end the conversation. Hitomi used her hand to wipe the tears from his face, brushing against his whisker marks causing him to giggle slightly, noticing his sensitivity to her touch on his cheeks she brushed them again. Hinata looked over at the giggling Naruto as Hitomi continued to rub his cheeks although now just for amusement as he began laughing so hard that he could barely move. Hinata looked at him with a huge grin and Hitomi stopped realising what was about to happen.

"S-So you are ticklish too Naruto-kun!" Hinata said with a giggle. She jumped for him and tried to grab him so she could pay him back for tickling her earlier. Unfortunately for her, Naruto was just too quick. He had already jumped out of Hitomi's hold and was running on all fours as quickly as possible to get out of the house, looking over his shoulder as Hinata got up to chase him.

As the children ran out of the house, Hizashi began to laugh out loud again. "AHAHAHAHA! HE **IS** LIKE HIS FATHER! ALREADY GOT GIRLS RUNNING AFTER HIM!" Everyone in the room sweat dropped and Hiashi just shook his head at his brothers actions. Even though they were twins Hizashi always did seem like the odd one out, saying things that were only on the minds of others.

"Brother you really are a fool." Hiashi told his brother in his 'I'm super serious' voice, which only seemed to make his brother laugh more.

"Only because I don't have a 'serious poll' stuck up my arse by the elders!" Hizashi shot back though his laughs. This caused everyone in the room to freeze fully expecting Hiashi to get angry, instead he only shook his head with a smile and replied.

"That may be so brother, but you seem to forget that you once had a similar incident when your dear wife Hisano-chan caught you peeking on woman in the bath house with your Byakugan when you were younger, it wasn't quite a pole but it did the trick… hmm what did she call it… oh that's right, the Thousand Years of Gentle Fist." Hizashi visible paled and his laughing instantly stopped. Only to be replaced by a face of pure horror as the memory returned to him. And as fate would have it, a certain person happened to enter the room just at that moment.

"Hmm… did someone mention my variation technique?" A sickly sweet but evil sounding voice called from behind Hizashi. Hizashi paled even more if possible and slowly looked behind him and embraced the legs standing there. Repeating over and over that he didn't peek on anyone and that he really didn't wish to see or feel that technique again. "It's alright Hizashi-kun, I know that you wouldn't after that… interesting experience…"

"Thank you Hisano-chan… I really didn't peek I promise… I have eyes only for you…" Hizashi's words were a little off and he didn't sound to right, obviously still scarred from the memory. His words sounded remarkable similar to those when he was trying to apologise to her all those years ago. After a few minutes Hizashi slowly returned to his normal self… if just a bit more quieter and the four adults began to talk amongst themselves. Neji had already dismissed himself as he went to make sure Hinata stayed safe, to which his father and mother commented that he should join in playing with them instead of just watching.

After about two hours of general chatting and Hizashi and Hiashi arguing over which Uchiha member of the council was the most stuck up. Hisano decided to ask about Naruto as she had heard a few hours ago that he had woken up today.

"So how is the little fox boy doing? I heard he woke up today and is already up and about. Quite a remarkable recovery if you ask me." She asked with an inquisitive look.

"He seems to have recovered physically faster then thought possible but he seems to believe that he is some sort of monster… probably the villagers doing from their constant abuse of him. Currently he is outside in the gardens playing with Hinata-chan. They seem to have already become good friends, which I believe will be good for both of them, as Naruto-kun really needed someone that wouldn't treat him worse then dirt and Hinata-chan really needed someone to have around her to help boost her confidence." Everyone around her nodded their heads in agreement and Hisano dismissed herself so that she could introduce herself to Naruto. About five seconds after she left she ran back inside the house, looking for the nearest camera. After finding one she quickly told everyone to come and look at Hinata and Naruto.

After all four adults wandered outside curiously and spotted the children, Hisano and Hitomi both cried out 'Kawaii!' while Hizashi and Hiashi just smiled. Naruto was lying on the grass with his legs and arms spread right out while his tail slowly moved back and forth. Hinata was lying at a right angle to him on her side with her head resting on his stomach. Both of them were soundly asleep with big grins on their face. Neji was still sitting on the porch watching them.

"Neji-kun, why did you not join in with them?" Hisano asked her son. To which he just replied that it was his duty to make sure Hinata was safe nothing more. Hizashi just shock his head at his six years old son's obsession with duty.

"Looks like they exhausted themselves from playing together over the last two hours." Hizashi stated like no one already knew. To which Hisano replied in a deadpan voice, thanking him for stating the obvious. After taking a few photos for both memory and blackmail sake, the adults moved to pick the children up.

"Take Naruto-kun to the guest room next to Neji's room. I will make sure Hinata-chan is tucked in." Hitomi said while gently picking her daughter up off of Naruto's stomach. "And watch his tail if you bend it you might hurt him.".

When Hinata and Naruto were both tucked in their beds the four adults once again converged to discuss what was to happen to Naruto as the council wanted him gone by tomorrow morning. They discussed a few ideas before Hitomi spoke up with the finalised idea.

"I will take Naruto-kun to see the hokage in the morning, as you all know what the council will do if he stays here any longer. Naruto-kun seems to be on quite a friendly basis with the hokage if the 'old man' he has referred to is him. Hopefully the hokage can provide him with a place to stay and Anbu guards to keep him safe. I will also discuss a few matters with the hokage while I am there… some of them will be quite interesting." The others nodded their heads in agreement all silently hoping that the hokage could do something to help the little hanyou.


	5. Chapter 4: Bravery for a friend

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

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**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Well I never really expected to get so much response to this little story of mine. But it has been quite profitable to see the opinions of others, and I have also have been contacted by an old friend who I haven't seen in years through a review. Certainly something that was surprising, but she also brought to my attention that this fanfiction is slowly starting to resemble all my other novels as far as writing style goes. After reading through the later chapters I have come to the conclusion that is definately slowly melding back into my original writing style, if anyone stops reading my fanfiction due to the fact it starts to resemble a novel it will be perfectly understandable. Anyway, onward with this weeks release.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot line in this story.

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Chapter 4: Bravery for a friend

Naruto's sleep was everything that you would not call peaceful. Tossing and turning in your sleep is one thing but growling and yelping is another. Hitomi and Hiashi who were only two rooms down from Naruto were woken up early in the morning by animalistic growls. Disturbed from their sleep and curious and worried about what was causing those odd growls they both followed the sound into Naruto's room. Seeing him there tossing and turning while growling irregularly more then worried both of them, and they attempted to wake him up by gently pushing him on the shoulder. This seemed to do nothing and they pushed him harder this time and repeated it until they figured that he wasn't going to wake. However when his growling stopped only to be replaced by whimpers and tears they shoved him a lot harder almost shaking him. Naruto's eyes shot open and he jumped up quickly, his eyes and ears dashing to all sides of the room until they made contact with Hitomi and Hiashi, both looking at him with worried eyes. Realising it was only a dream Naruto plopped down onto the bed and began to cry. Hitomi realising that his dream must have been really horrifying to cause such a reaction hoped up onto the bed next to him and held him close to her.

Naruto's cries slowly ebbed away from the comforting hold he was in and soon became nothing but sniffles. Hitomi was about to ask Naruto if he wanted to talk about his bad dream when he spoke up.

"They… they were hurting me again… e-everyone around me was hurting me and I couldn't move… they were all calling me n-names and throwing things at me… I kept asking them w-why they were hurting me… but they didn't answer, t-they just kept hurting me." Naruto's sniffles increased a little and Hitomi pulled him closer letting him know she was there. "Then… then they all jumped back… a-almost like they were afraid of me now… I don't k-know why but instead of being afraid… I-I felt angry at them… very a-angry and I growled at them… they backed off more as I did and s-some started running… then Hinata-chan appeared and ran too m-me… she wasn't scared of me like they were and she w-wrapped her hands around me and told me to calm down. I quickly lost the anger I was feeling and started to cry… then… then the v-villagers turned back and saw Hinata-chan…" Naruto's eyes began to tear up again and tears begun to fall his voice becoming more raspier as he spoke. "and… and they grabbed her off me… and… and… and they s-started to hurt her too… they called her names and hurt her all because she was n-near me… I-I didn't know what to do… they… they were h-hurting Hinata-chan because of me… calling her n-names because of me… I was my fault…" Naruto burst once again into full blown tears and cried into Hitomi's sleeve as she tightened her hold on him again, all the while Naruto was saying over and over again that they were hurting Hinata because of him, because it was his fault.

Naruto suddenly pulled himself out from her hold and began to sniff the air. He jumped off the bed and headed for the door, just in time for Hinata to walk to the front of the door holding a pillow in her hands. Before she could ask what was wrong with Naruto to make him cry in his sleep, she was grabbed by Naruto and pulled close while he wrapped himself around her, tail and all, causing her to let out a small 'eep'.

"I-I won't let them hurt you Hinata-chan… not because of me… I'll protect you from them… they won't ever touch my best friend… I promise you they won't…" Naruto repeated this sentence over and over while he held Hinata. Hinata thinking that his nightmare must have been something really terrible to cause something like this continued to hold him back and rub his ears until he calmed down. By the time he had calmed down though Naruto had fallen asleep while holding Hinata. Confused on what to do, Hinata looked pleadingly up into her mothers eyes, Hitomi realising that Naruto had fallen asleep and had not let go of Hinata slowly walked towards then and gently pried Naruto of Hinata. Gently placing him back in his bed and pulling up the covers Hitomi gave Naruto a goodnight kiss on the forehead and walked out of his room, grabbing Hinata by the hand to put her back to her bed. Hiashi gave one final look at Naruto before also walking back to his bed.

'_Looks like they have damaged him more then we thought… the look in his eyes when he recounted his dream… I don't want to know what horrible things he saw them do to Hinata-chan… lets hope that the hokage is able to provide him with enough safety so that his life improves beyond what it is now… at least having Hinata-chan as a friend and us as adults who don't treat him like dirt has seemed to do something for him… it is easy to tell that we have already found a place in his still pure heart… at least the villagers couldn't damage that.'_

The next morning

The next morning Naruto woke peacefully as warm sun beams shone through the window in his room onto his face. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes and slowly pulled himself up. Looking around and studying the room he was in Naruto slowly became frightened as he didn't know where he was. Before he could freak out however the memories of yesterday returned to his mind. To which he gave a big small and his eyes became teary, he had found people who weren't like the villagers, who treated him like a normal person and he had made his first friend. Naruto now reenergised by the happy memories jumped out of bed and ran towards the only door in his room, but not before noting that their was a small bundle of clothes next to his bed with a note on it. Curiosity got the better of him and he 'bounced' over to the bundle of clothes and read the note. Not being too proficient in reading Naruto found it a little difficult to make out what it said, but after a few tries he was able to decipher it. Naruto had heard that it is usually quite unheard of for a child of only five being able to read, but the old man had given him a few books when he was at the orphanage, and not ever being read to by anyone and usually being locked in his dorm by himself for days on end he decided to teach himself to read them.

"_Dear Naruto,_

_Hiashi and myself had to attend a clan meeting early this morning and won't be back until about 10:30am. I have already organised a friend to provide you with fresh cloths as well as a bath and breakfast will be prepared for you when you are ready. You are welcome to venture anywhere in the Hyuga compound but I recommended that you don't leave the safety of the main house and the gardens. We will see you as soon as we are back as we need to have a talk with you about something very important._

_With love from Hitomi"_

Naruto read the letter a few more times to make sure he understood it all then changed into the new cloths that were left for him. There was one thing that he didn't understand in the note however, _'What is a bath?'_. As soon as he left the room a branch member approached him and gave him a small bow to which he returned with a smile and a wary 'hi'. She seemed nice at first glace but Naruto wasn't sure wether or not to trust her. She looked about fifteen and wore a bright yellow kimono with white flowers on it, contrary to the usual white that all the other Hyugas wore. Her brown hair was long and pulled back into a ponytail. Her face was as flawless as one would expect from a Hyuga, and her eyes were the same as all other Hyuga's. What caught Naruto's attention though was a white band she wore across her forehead, he had seen the same thing on Neji's forehead but forgot to ask about why he wore it. Naruto had notice that a lot of the Hyuga he saw wore those white bands, and he was curious as to what they were.

"Good morning Naruto-san, I have been given instructions with looking after you until Hitomi-sama and Hiashi-sama return. My name is Tohru Sisame Hyuga, but you can call me just plain Tohru." Her voice sounded energetic and quite sweet, and upon hearing her friendly tone Naruto lightened up a little. The young woman in front of him then gave him a small grin before gently grabbing him by the hand and leading him to the bathroom. Naruto didn't quite know what to think of Tohru, he didn't detect any ill intentions from her so decided that she was alright for the time being, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't prepared to bolt in the other direction if the need arose. Tohru didn't really know what to think of Naruto either, she had been their when the third hokage explained what the fourth had done, and that during the sealing Naruto had become a kitsune hanyou. She believed that the seal had kept the Nine-Tailed Fox's influence away from Naruto and that he was in control of his own body but she wasn't sure to what degree and also didn't know whether or not the seal would actually hold forever. She had heard from Hitomi that he was perfectly fine but he just had some animalistic behaviour. She did find his ears, tail and whiskers _extremely_ cute however.

When they reached the bathroom Tohru opened the door and lead him in, releasing his hand she turned on the taps for the bath and added a few salts to it while Naruto watched curious as to what she was doing, after a few minutes the bath was full and she turned to Naruto with a grin and gestured towards the bath. After a few minutes of silence Naruto was confused as to what she wanted him to do and asked her. She gave a small giggle and said that he just had to hop in the bath and she would help wash him.

"Bath… what is a bath?" Naruto asked with his head cocked to the side. He then turned back to the large white bowl shaped object now full of water then asked. "Is that a bath?"

Tohru giggled again thinking that Naruto was just being silly. So she simply decided to play along. "Yes Naruto-san that is a bath, they are for washing yourself." Naruto upon hearing this turned his gaze to the 'bath' and stared at it wide eyed.

"So that's what all the other kids were washed in… I always wondered how they were washed at the orphanage, I always was just given a small bucket to wash myself with." Naruto excited about having something that all the other kids got, jumped up and down excitedly while yipping and saying that he was going to get to have his first bath.

Tohru was too busy laughing at the little fox boy in front of her making odd yip noises to understand what he said, that is until she started to calm down. _'Wait… did he say his first bath?'_. "Naruto-san, did you say this is your first bath?" A hint of both confusion and worry was evident in the young Hyuga's voice. Mainly because of the fact that Naruto was five and still hadn't had a bath yet, that is five years of dirt and grime.

"Yer, I never got to have one. At the time I didn't know what they were but the other kids always got one. To wash I was just given a bucket of cold water. Usually if I wanted more I would run to the river near the orphanage, but most of the time I mainly went there cause I loved to swim!" Naruto did this while thrusting his fist into the air.

Tohru giggled again at Naruto's actions, deep down she felt sad for the little hanyou however. Hitomi had told her on how much he was abused but she wasn't really sure if she believed them however, but with that small comment Tohru found herself believing a little more then she did before. Figuring that he should get into the bath before it went cold she told Naruto to hold still while she undressed him. Not fully understanding what she was going to do, as Naruto had always dressed and undressed himself it shocked him a little when she pulled off his shirt. He calmed down however when he realised she wasn't going to hurt him, she was just taking his cloths off for him, he didn't really care about her seeing him naked as he was only a child and thoughts like that never really bother kids. After Naruto was undressed he practically leapt into the bath, much to Tohru's dismay as she got splashed.

The next few minutes Naruto just splashed around in the large tub, diving and jumping from side to side, all the while smiling and laughing and generally having a good time. Tohru had to hold onto the nearby bench when Naruto started playing with the soap, he just couldn't seem to get a grip on the 'slippery pink rock' as he called it. It wasn't until he decided to use his claws that it stopped. However he started to sniff it and upon smelling the scent of strawberries on it, proceeded to try and eat it. The face that he pulled at the disgusting taste and his attempts to extract the nasty taste from his mouth was more then what Tohru needed to burst into laughter.

Naruto realising he had made her laugh at his misfortune, flicked his tail in her direction sending a small splash of water directly at her head. Upon contact Tohru stopped laughing and Naruto started. Tohru not wanting to be beaten by a little boy she decided to take it up a notch, while Naruto was laughing she filled a little bucket with cold water from the tap, turning to face him she proceeded to throw the water at him. As soon as the water struck him Naruto yelled out loud, his body was normally quite warm and with the added temperature from the hot water in the bath, Tohru's cold water hit him like ice causing his tail and ears to go pointy and the hair on them stick up as Naruto shivered from the freezing contact. Figuring that he had lost he called a truce as he really didn't want any more freezing water on him, Tohru however was still rolling on the floor in laughter.

"Ahahahaha! Did you see your face! When the water touched you it looked like you turned into a statue!" Waiting patiently until Tohru settled down Naruto asked if there was a comb he could borrow to brush his tail. Finding it cute that he brushes his tail, because at his age most don't even brush their hair, Tohru rushed over to a nearby cupboard and pulled out a small white comb and a few bottles marked shampoo and conditioner. Walking over to Naruto she gave him the comb but told him to wait until she washed his hair and tail. Not really knowing what she was on about Naruto just let her do whatever she said she would do. He was surprised when she squirted some of the substance in the bottles she brought onto his head and along his tail, he was just as surprised when she started rubbing the smelly liquid into his hair which produced a type of white foam. She kept rubbing for about five minutes then filled a bucket with warm water and washed the foam of his head. She did the same thing to his tail then repeated the whole procedure with the other bottles. When she was finished Naruto was sure their was a shine to the fur on his tail, he quite liked it and he expressed his gratitude by wagging his tail while thanking her, all the while with a big smile on his face.

As he started to comb his freshly cleaned tail he initiated a small conversation with Tohru. By now he had come to the conclusion that Tohru was one of the nice people who did like him, which was more then enough to merit his trust.

"Um… Tohru-san can I ask you a few questions?" to which Tohru nodded with a smile, "Um… why is it some Hyuga have that white headband and others don't, I noticed it the other day I saw Neji-san and a few other people who made our lunch?" Tohru's eyes darkened for a split second and Naruto thought that he had said something wrong but when she looked up at him, he noticed that her eyes were pained not angry and he was confused why. Tohru in response put her hands behind her head and undid the white sash and let it fall to the ground, Naruto gasped at what he saw, on her head was a green 'tattoo' that was made up of an X in the middle and two canes pointing away from it. Asking what it was Tohru found it difficult to reply.

"Well… to explain its purpose I will have to tell you a bit about Hyuga traditions. Originally at the start of the clan, the elders decided that there should be a family that ruled and another that protected thus the main and branch families were created. However the elders over time came to fear the numbers of the branch family and the possibility that they didn't like their role as 'servant' so to prevent a clan feud the elders set out to create a means to protect themselves from their protectors in case they should turn on them and as a result the Caged Bird Seal was created. The function of the seal is to subdue its bearer if anyone of the main house needed to by attacking the brain cells directly. Causing indescribable amounts of pain, it also seals away the Byakugan when we die so that it cannot be stolen, however over time its use became corrupted and the main house more power hungry. Now it is used as an implement of fear, fear that the main house could activate the seal at any time. They use this to turn us into there 'willing' servants to do for them whatever they want." Tohru's voice was almost a growl by the time she finished her explanation, Naruto's growl however was the real thing.

"What! How can they do that! You can't make slaves out of your own family, that is so wrong! Is there any way to remove it?"

"That is true Naruto-san, it is wrong, and no there is no way to remove the seal that we know. Not without killing the person anyway." Tohru's voice was still full of anger and hatred at the main house which brought a question to Naruto's mind.

"What… What about Hiashi-san and Hitomi-san… do they think the same way?" Naruto really didn't want the image he had of the first two adults to be kind to him to be shattered by this ridiculous practice. Tohru's mood lightened at this and Naruto felt a little more at ease.

"No, they hate the Caged Bird Seal almost as much as the branch family does and are trying to convince the council of elders to relinquish the practice and bring both of the houses together." Naruto let out a sigh of relief and Tohru placed her band back over the seal. Naruto didn't talk for a while and looked to be in deep thought, upon coming back to reality he proclaimed that he would find a way to remove the seal. Tohru tried to convince him that it was impossible, but Naruto wouldn't have a piece of it.

"No, I promise to find a way to remove the seal from you and all the branch members and I always keep my promises." Naruto said while giving Tohru a big grin. Tohru just wished him a casual good luck but deep down she wished that he would someday be successful. The next twenty minutes progressed well and Naruto and Tohru chatted about all sorts of things, Tohru was surprised at how enthusiastic he was when he spoke but ruled it down to the fact that he was still a child.

When the conversation slowly died down Naruto turned to her with eyes full of hope he also went to speak but stopped before any words came out, confused as to what he was trying to say she just patiently waited for him to find the right words.

"Um… Tohru-san, I was just wondering… if… if you would like to be my friend… I don't have much to offer but I promise to be the best friend I can. That's… if you want to that is." Tohru just smiled and walked over him with a towel in her hands. Lifting him out of the bath she began to dry his head, Naruto thinking she didn't want to be his friend started to look rejected. But when Tohru removed the towel off his head she was kneeing in front of him with a big smile on her face.

"Of course Naruto-kun, I would love to be your friend." She said with a happy smile. Naruto practically leapt into her arms and yipped happily and repeated over and over that Tohru-chan was his new friend. After he calmed down a little she put the still bouncing hanyou on the ground and picked up the towel again to finish drying him.

After Naruto was dried, and Tohru had dried her hair from when Naruto flicked the water at her earlier, she helped dress him back up and led him to the main eating hall of the branch family. Upon arriving Naruto noticed that there was at least one hundred Hyuga present, all eating breakfast and talking together along long oak tables. Naruto could hear some guy say something that resembled a joke but he didn't seem to get the punch line. Naruto felt slightly venerable in such a large crowd and his nervousness seemed to show as his freshly washed hair on his ears and tail seemed to stick up slightly. Realising that Naruto must by worried about them turning around and attacking him, so she knelt down and gently grabbed his hand for reassurance and led him towards their designated seats.

Along the way Naruto noticed a few Hyuga stopped eating their meals and turned to him, with in a few minutes the entire hall was silent and watching Naruto. Having so many people staring at him with such piercing eyes was more then enough to frighten him and his mind began racing thinking over and over again of what could happen to him. His eyes did pick up a few smiles however. _'Perhaps… they don't hate me either.'_

Seeing Naruto was becoming frightened moved him carefully to his seat and addressed those in front of her. "This is Naruto Uzumaki and I would expect that you all show him a little more kindness then you are now, we all know what it is like to be shunned and abused by others and yet Naruto-kun knows this more then any of you ever at the age of five, so stop starting at him because you are frightening him and introduce yourselves." Tohru's statement had a variety of reactions, some just looked at Naruto and glared, some just looked indifferent but most actually smiled and left their seats. Within a few minutes most of the hall had formed a line to greet the young hanyou, some even had their children with them. They would either bow and introduce themselves and family or just shack his hand. Naruto found it quite overwhelming and began to tear a little.

"What's wrong Naruto-kun, why are you crying." Tohru asked with concern.

"It's… It's just that I never knew so many people existed that could show me so much kindness, I'm just so happy that so many people accept me for who I am… and not think I'm a monster." Naruto continued to cry slightly with a big smile on his face as more and more branch members introduced themselves to him. It seemed to be a regular occurrence for most of the children and most women to want to touch his ears or his tail, to which he gladly let them as it not only felt nice but they also seemed to like it. Although Naruto's ears were starting to hurt from all the 'Kawaii's' that they heard over the next half hour.

After all the introductions were over they all returned to their breakfasts and Naruto was served his. He didn't know what exactly it was but from the taste he assumed it was something that had fish in it. While eating… okay more like inhaling his breakfast he held a light conversation with Tohru, that is until he saw a group of boys staring at her and saying something. Thinking that they may have been insulting her he turned his ears to them and listened in on their conversation, he couldn't make out most of it but he was sure it wasn't something you should say about another person. So he turned back to Tohru to confirm.

"Um… Tohru-chan, what does 'She has the biggest damn hooters, I so want to squeeze them' mean?." Naruto said this all too loud and a few Hyuga from nearby tables looked at him with astonishment, some even choked on their food as they started to snicker. Tohru however, had no idea what to say, remembering that he was only five he couldn't possibly have known what the sentence meant which means he must have heard it somewhere recently hence the reason he was asking. She looked down slightly and took a small glance at her chest, she was very 'gifted' compared to most but she didn't like people having perverted thoughts about her so turning to Naruto with an evil looking grin she asked in a sickly sweet voice.

"Where did you hear that… that rude statement Naruto-kun." Naruto completely oblivious to the fury that was welling up inside of Tohru simply pointed with his tail to the group of guys he had heard it from. Tohru looked at the table across the room with a glare that could have burnt them all. However she was still confused as to when he had heard them say it because they didn't introduce themselves to him earlier. Asking him when he had heard them say it a few of the nearby Hyuga also looked to him, finding where this conversation might go humorous as Tohru was well known to be very un-hyuga like whenever someone ticked her off. Naruto just gave a huge grin to this and pointed to his ears while moving them left and right.

"With my ears offcourse, with them I am able to hear almost all of the conversations in this room." Naruto proclaimed quite proudly, the onlooking Hyuga and Tohru were both amazed at this and each placed a note for themselves not to say anything they shouldn't when within range of his hearing. Naruto still oblivious to Tohru's rage, proceeded to say a few more lines that the boys were saying. "Um… now they said they want to grab your arse and lick your hooters… hmm what are 'hooters' Tohru-chan and are they tasty? Because if they aren't why would they want to lick them?" Naruto's question for his age was completely innocent as he had no idea what they were saying, the nearby Hyugas however knew exactly what the group of boys were saying and started bursting out in laughter, some even had a trickle of blood coming out of their noses and had to hide their faces. Naruto hearing the laughter turned to see if there was something funny, what he did see however was Tohru rushing with a death glare to the table of boys he had pointed to before.

As Tohru approached them all five boys shivered slightly, looking up to the source of the killer intent they were being hit with they jumped back in fright of what they saw. Tohru was standing right in front of them menacingly with a katana she had pulled from god knows where, outstretched pointed directly towards the nearest of them. That wasn't what scared them however it was the evil and demonic look of pure fury that was on her face that really made them shit there pants. Literally for the one with the sword pointed at him.

"YOU WANT TO LICK SOMETHING! LICK MY KATANA!" The boys had about half a second as the blade came down upon their table cutting it clean in half. The boys quickly separated and began running and screaming for their lives as Tohru charged after them swinging her blade and screaming that she was going to neuter them. This type of spectacle would have made most that saw it roll on the floor in laughter but for the Hyuga clan that prided itself on self-control found the event so utterly hilarious that some might have even needed to go to hospital from lack of oxygen. Some of the Hyuga who were near Tohru and Naruto and had heard the conversation patted him on the head and thanked him, in between breaths, for the amusing show. Naruto still oblivious as to what the boys meant and why Tohru had gotten so angry about it, just nodded his head and said a small 'You're welcome'.

However there fun was soon cut short when one of the Hyuga clan elders arrived through the main entry, he was furious as to what the racket was caused by so he had decided to find out. Upon arriving through the doors he ordered for silence, within seconds the whole room fell silent as if someone had hit an off switch for their laughter. Glancing around with superiority he spotted Tohru standing over a scared shitless young branch male with her sword pointed dangerously at his nether regions. Immediately jumping conclusion he assumed that Tohru was the reason for the uproar.

"You! You have caused a disturbance for the last time Tohru, you constantly refusal to follow Hyuga standards and you refuse to change that ridiculous kimono of yours and it's about time you learnt your place. ACTIVATE!" Performing a one handed hand sign he activated Tohru's caged bird seal. Her katana clattered to the floor as she instantly fell down clutching her head in pain and screaming out loud. Naruto realising that the old man in front of them had activated her seal, appeared in front of her in almost an instant. Crouched down on all fours in front of Tohru, Naruto growled deeply and stared up with angry eyes at the man who was activating her seal.

"Let her go." Naruto's voice was deep and commanding and his growling could also be heard as he spoke. The surrounding branch members were astonished that he had stood up to the elder without a thought for his safety, but then again they would also if they too didn't have the caged bird seal. Naruto's sudden appearance and his threatening stance shocked the elder slightly and he deactivated Tohru's seal by distraction. His shocked look then turned to one of pure anger, hatred and disgust as he gazed unblinkingly at the 'monster' in front of him. Having been released from her torment, Tohru looked up with grateful eyes at the little hanyou standing in front of her, she couldn't remember anyone standing up for her like that let alone someone she had only known for two hours. Then it hit her, this is what a true friend was, someone willing to put their life on the line for someone close to them. Tohru's tears had been poring off her face before from pain but now they were falling because she was afraid of what the elder might do to Naruto she didn't want them to kill him and hearing stories of how much they hate him they just might kill him. Hearing her whimpers Naruto slowly stepped backwards till his head was near Tohru's, all the while never taking his gaze off of the elder walking towards him nor did his growling cease until he was near Tohru's head. Gently wrapping his tail around her in a comforting way he then proceeded to lick her still throbbing head that was now bare as Tohru had already ripped her band off when she fell to the floor. Within seconds Tohru felt the lingering pain slowly ebb away and the surrounding Hyuga watched on in amazement as Tohru let out a relieved sigh as the pain in her head completed disappeared.

Satisfied that the pain had left his friend Naruto took a few more steps forwards and once again stood between Tohru and the Hyuga elder who was now no more then two meters away from them. All of the branch members in the hall silently watched as the two stared each other down for what seemed like hours, the only noise that could be heard was Naruto's deep throated growl and Tohru's still fast paced breathing. Naruto was the first one of the two to speak.

"You had no right to do that to Tohru-chan, she wasn't the one who made them laugh as I originally caused this." The elder's glare didn't change nor did his expression, he just continued to look at Naruto with cold emotionless eyes.

"You are the one with no right to tell me what I can or can't do you little demon! And as for whose fault it was I really don't care, she has had that coming for a long time. Now step aside you little monster!" A Hyuga is taught to always keep their emotions under control and to remain calm and collected, but the elder in front of Naruto had no qualms about showing just how much he hated Naruto as some of the branch members in the room begun to shake from the killer intent that he was releasing. Naruto however still stood on all fours unwavering.

"No but I can tell you that I will not allow anyone to hurt my friends! Not even you!" Naruto's bravery was beyond most adults so to see a five year old stand up to a Hyuga elder like he was, greatly increased the respect that the branch members had for the hanyou. The elder however did not share their opinion and his anger towards the little 'demon' just increased because of the blatant disrespect that he was being shown.

"I'll show you to disrespect me you monster!" and with that said, the elder charged towards Naruto. Naruto seeing the man charge at him as plain as anything, found it easy to follow his movements and raised his arms accordingly in an 'x' shape to block the palm thrust. However, being only five he didn't have that much strength to hold back a strike let alone a charka powered one and stumbled slightly backwards, which was more then enough for the elder to kick him hard in the stomach. With a loud foxlike yelp Naruto flew back and crashed into the wall behind him leaving a good dent in it. As Naruto's body crumbled to the floor the elder looked over him with disgust then turned his gaze back to Tohru but before he could even take a step towards her he felt a presence behind him. Spinning around and fully expecting the demon to try to attack him he took a defensive stance, however when he did look back all he saw was the hole in the wall with no Naruto.

Not knowing where he could have gone to the elder went to activate his Byakugan, that is until he heard a deep growling behind him. Spinning back towards the growl he once again meet Naruto's eyes, the elder was in a state of shock however because Naruto had got up and run behind him even before he himself turned around, his speed was quite impressive. But not only that but Naruto didn't go and try to attack him but just ran between him and Tohru, something the branch members noted. The elder however was not impressed by this and just glared at the demon in front of him. Tohru however was trying to sit up and tell Naruto that she was fine and for him to run, but as she tried to push herself up her arms gave out and she fell again. She expected to hit the solid ground and was surprised when she landed on something soft, opening her eyes to see what it was she saw that she had landed on Naruto's tail, he had cushioned her landing.

The surrounding Hyuga were all in shock at the devotion Naruto was showing to his friend, one that he only met a few hours before. Naruto showing no sign of attacking just stood on all fours growling at the elder warning him to stay away from his friend. The elder just continued to stare daggers at the demon.

"It's about time someone got rid of you you worthless demon!" The elder charged at Naruto again but this time being more prepared and the elder being more careless due to his rage, Naruto was able to deflect the first blow but again was unable to stop the second. Flying back and hitting another wall, Naruto yelped again from the pain and everyone around them could have sworn they heard something crack. The elder knew better then to wait for Naruto to get up again so instantly ran towards him with the intent to kill him. Naruto had recovered quickly from the knock back and also ran towards the elder still on all fours, to which made the elder actually smile except it was more of a crazed one then anything. The onlooking Hyuga's watched in stunned amazement as the two ran towards each other, but once again were shocked because when they were in range of each other the elder thrust forward with a palm strike and instead of attacking back or blocking Naruto bent low and jumped high over the elder's head landing behind him only to run back to in front of Tohru.

The branch members watching stood still as they all revaluated their thoughts on Naruto, sure most of them didn't think of him as a demon but to see him display this level of devotion to a friend was all but unheard off and they all found themselves feeling like they should help somehow. So when the time came that the elder ran to strike Naruto again he stopped in mid run when he saw almost every branch member run in between him and Naruto. Demanding to know what they were doing one branch member took a step forward.

"We can't allow a friend to be hurt, not even by you." Choosing a variation of what Naruto had previously said seemed to make everyone smile. But the elder in front of them did not seem even the slightest bit amused, and he let ever bit of rage he held pour out of him like a fountain when he yelled to them.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE YOU WORTHLESS BRANCH TRASH! YOU ALL FORGET WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE AND I COULD EASILY JUST ACTIVATE ALL OF YOUR SEALS! SPEAKING OF WHICH!" As he finished he raised his hand and made the necessary one handed sign, but before he could gather any chakra the doors behind him burst open and he was almost hit to the ground as two figures emerged from them, piercing him with their killer intent. Behind them stood Hiashi and Hitomi Hyuga.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE KARU! I USE MY BYAKUGAN TO CHECK ON NARUTO-KUN AND WHAT DO I SEE? YOU USING HIM AS TARGET PRACTICE WHILE HE TRIES DESPERATELY TO DEFEND A FRIEND WHICH YOU WRONGFULLY ASSAULTED! NOT ONLY THAT BUT YOU TRIED TO ACTIVATE THE SEALS OF ALL THE BRANCH FAMILY FOR JUST STANDING IN FRONT OF YOU! OH HOW I WOULD LOVE TO SEE TO YOUR PUNISHMENT BUT SADLY YOU HAVE TO BE HANDED OVER TO THE HOKAGE FOR PUNISHMENT AS YOU BROKE HIS LAW AND ATTACKED NARUTO-KUN!" Hiashi's voice was clear and commanding and you could practically feel your body crumble under just the tone itself. Hiashi waited a few seconds so that Karu could go over what he said and so that Hiashi could calm himself down enough to say the ending statement. "And the last time I checked Karu, the punishment for that law carried maximum imprisonment time with the chance of execution." Everyone in the room could feel the blood drain from Karu's face when he realised the complications of his actions. As Hiashi called for the guards to arrest him Karu struggled against their hold and screamed out that they couldn't do this to him. When Karu was finally taken out of the building Hiashi and Hitomi walked through the crowd to reach Naruto. They found him in the very centre asking Tohru if she was okay.

"Naruto-kun could you please explain what happened. We saw what happened to you but didn't see how all of this came about." Hitomi asked in a 'serious mother' tone. Naruto just turned to them with a smile as he recounted the events that transpired since his arrive at the dining hall, including the comments that were said about Tohru much to her embarrassment.

"… so yer that's pretty much all that happened, I still don't understand what those boys meant when they made those comments about Tohru-chan, but yer that's it. Is Tohru-chan going to be alright she looks a little sick?" Hitomi and Hiashi looked down to the hanyou in front of them who seemed to think very little of what had actually been done to him and was more concerned with Tohru.

"Um… yes Tohru-chan should be fine Naruto-kun, she probably has mild concussion due to the seal's effect. But what about you, are you alright?" Hitomi was once again doing the 'concerned mother' thing, not that Naruto minded as it made him feel loved. Naruto reassured her that he was fine as he always was. Hitomi told him to go to the hospital just to be sure but Naruto still said that he was fine and to take Tohru there instead. A stretcher was brought to carry Tohru and before she was taken away she ruffled Naruto's hair and thanked him for his bravery on her part.

After Tohru had been taken to the hospital the remaining branch Hyugas gave a small bow to Naruto as a sign of recognition for his bravery then returned to their breakfast while others left to start the day. All the while Hitomi and Hiashi slowly explained to Naruto that the council wanted him gone from the Hyuga compound and that they themselves tried to push for him to stay.

"… so its not because you don't want me here, its what the council is threatening that I have to leave?" To which Hitomi and Hiashi nodded slowly, they expect him to burst into tears but once again he shocked them both. "Hmm… that's ok! I don't want any of my friends to be hurt because of me and I'm sure the old man will be able to have a place where I could stay, he once mentioned it before I was kicked out of the orphanage." Naruto said with a big smile, it slowly faded however to a frown before he next spoke. "But… I'm still able to visit you whenever I want right?"

"Well… not really Naruto-kun." Hitomi said with a sad face which Naruto soon mimicked "But!..." See said in a happier tone. "Because you are the only known member of the Uzumaki clan Naruto-kun, that automatically makes you the clan head, which means that you can come see us every Saturday and have a 'clan meeting' with us, and there is nothing that the elders or the council will be able to do. Well… that is as long as they don't know that it isn't really a meeting." Naruto's smile took on a more mischievous look as she said this, sneaking around is what he did best, especially after all the time he had to hide from the villagers.

Naruto yipped a few times but before he started bouncing like usual he stopped and his ears began to twitch. Turning his head in the direction of where he heard the noise he bounced off and soon arrived at his destination, right where Hinata was about to turn the corner. He hid behind the doors as Hinata, Hizashi and Hisano walked through them, they had heard about the commotion and had come to see how Naruto was doing. As they passed the doors however Naruto crept up behind Hinata, grabbing her shoulders with his hands he shouted.

"Hey Hinata-chan!" Now for most people a sudden surprise like that would cause most to jump a few meters into the air, but for an incredibly shy and insecure girl not quite five years old it was enough to give you a heart attack… or in Hinata's case faint from shock. Naruto caught Hinata with his tail so she didn't hit the ground and instantly freaked out thinking he had killed her. Everyone that knew Hinata and her tendencies to faint, burst out in laughter at the poor hanyou's misfortune which only confused and upset Naruto even more. It was only when Hitomi found her bearings and got her laughing under control to explain to Naruto that she just fainted from shock that Naruto began to calm down. Keeping her balanced with his tail he waited quietly until she woke up, he only had to wait a few minutes and as soon as she was back on her feet she blushed bright red and apologised for fainting on him. Naruto just stood there for a moment unable to piece together properly on what she just said.

"Um… wait, that's not right Hinata-chan you don't have to apologise, I should be the one to say sorry because I was the one to scare you not the other way around., so yer… I'm sorry I scared you." Hinata's blush just increased in intensity and Naruto sat their waving his tail with a big goofy grin on his face while he rubbed the back of his head. Hitomi finally fully recovered from her laughter fits and walked over to the pair.

"Naruto-kun, it's time to take you to the hokage as it would be unwise for you to stay here much longer especially after you defended Tohru-chan." Hinata hearing both of those things for the first time asked in a hushed voice what her mother meant by Naruto not being able to stay and him defending Tohru.

After going through the whole explanation on both topics Hinata started to sob knowing that she won't be able to see her friend anymore. Seeing his best friend cry was almost enough to make Naruto cry and he gave her a small hug and told her about how he will be able to visit. At this time another idea popped into Hitomi's mind.

"And I will still take you to the park whenever I can Hinata-chan and we 'accidentally' happen to see Naruto-kun there too, I don't see why you can't play with each other then." This brightened up Hinata's world and her sobbing soon stopped, she was hurt that the elders had forbidden Naruto from coming to the Hyuga compound anymore as she wouldn't be able to play with him, but hearing that he would come and 'visit' every Saturday and that she could visit him at the park made it much easier to cope with. Again telling Naruto that it was time to go he asked if Hinata could come as well, to which Hitomi agreed to with a smile.

Seeing that Hinata had calmed down now, Hitomi walked up to them both and took them by the hand as they left the dinning room and headed to the exit of the Hyuga compound to see the hokage.


	6. Chapter 5: The Food That Became The Obse

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

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**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Again, a chapter released as promised. A couple of people sent me a few emails thanking me for such an enjoyable story and I must once again thank them for their kind words. There was however one particular email I found quite humorous, it seems that I seriously offended someone by writing a fanfiction that resembled a novel. And because of that saw it fit to insult my work and call me a pointless waste of data on . To tell everyone the truth I found the whole email a complete hoot, because as stated before I write novels, and if I can't change my writing enough to fit into the normal 'fanfictions' then just don't read it, simple.

Anyway, on with the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products, I do however own any original plot of this fanfiction.

Chapter 5: The Food That Became The Obsession

As Hitomi walked through the streets she began to feel Naruto's hand shack slightly, turning to him, to see if anything was wrong she saw that his ears were dropped low and that his tail was no longer waving from side to side, but what really caught her attention was the frightened look on his face as he looked to the buildings to his right. Following his gaze she saw that the villagers along the sidewalk were all staring at him intently. There was something wrong with their eyes though, they were slightly glazed over and cold. But it wasn't just their eyes, their whole face was screwed up in unrestrained hatred for the little hanyou.

As they walked onward Hitomi saw more and more people were gathering along the streets all talking in hushed voices to one another and pointing to Naruto. This infuriated her more then she thought possible. Seeing the after effects of their mental and physical torture was one thing but actually seeing their glares of hatred and killer intent that was focused towards the little hanyou was on a whole other level.

Naruto had obviously been use to seeing them treat him like this and had chosen to try and stay out of their sight. But walking with her and Hinata in the middle of the street forced him to suffer under their hateful glares and their words. It was only when Naruto's ears twitched slightly and his face and hand tightened that Hitomi realised that he could actually hear what they were saying about him.

_"Poor Naruto… your forced to suffer their harsh treatment even when they don't give it to you directly… If only they could see what you are really like."_ Hitomi gave Naruto's hand a slight squeeze with her own, which seemed to snap him out of the daze he was in and he turned his gaze towards her. Hitomi just gave his hand another small squeeze and a comforting smile. The way she smiled and her stance told Naruto one thing, that she wouldn't let them hurt him, with this small sign of protection his body seemed to visibly relax and his ears slowly pointed upright again.

Hitomi wished that she could do more for the little hanyou then just provide him with comforting gestures but with the way the council and Hyuga elders were their probably wasn't much more. She knew that she had provided him with a few things that she knew he valued more then anything, the first and probably most important was being an adult that didn't think of him as a monster and showed motherly love towards him. Looking towards Naruto then her daughter Hitomi realised there was also one other thing that he probably valued just as much if not more, his friendship with Hinata. Even if they had only known each other for a very short time, Hitomi could see the bonds of friendship were strong between them, and if judging by his actions early that morning he protected his friends without any second thought about his own safety. Hitomi was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt Naruto try to pull his hand out of hers, not realising why until it was too late she didn't let his hand go.

A nearby half drunk villager had been leaning against a post minding his own business and keeping to himself as he watched everyone around him walk on pass. It was days like this that made his life worth living, alcohol and no responsibilities that was his life and he loved it. He was brought out of his cheerful mood however when he saw something that almost made him drop his bottle of sake, the Hyuga matriarch and her daughter were walking down the street. But that wasn't what shocked him, it was a certain fox demon that was holding her hand. His mind being half under the influence of alcohol and half filled with deluded ideas of killing the little monster couldn't possible process on why the Hyuga matriarch would ever hold hands with a demon. But then it hit him, the reason why she would was the demons doing.

"Everyone get out of the way! The demon brat has possessed the Hyuga matriarch!" Naruto had heard this as clear as a bell and tried to pull away from Hitomi's grip, however her hand didn't let go of his and he looked around to see her deep in thought. She hadn't heard the man, but everyone else seemed to as they all began grinning and shacking in anticipation of what was going to happen. Naruto tried to get Hitomi's attention but by the time she came to he heard and felt something change in the wind. Hitomi and Hinata could only gasp from shock as a bottle came flying out of no where and smashed into the side of Naruto's head. Ripping him from Hitomi's hold and sending him flying while the pieces of the bottle cut deeply into Naruto's head.

Naruto almost hit the ground before his mind registered the pain that now course through his system, and as it did he let out a loud yelp. Skidding along the ground to a halt he slightly turned his head in the direction of his attacker and saw a man charging towards him, with the same looks that everyone around him was giving him, they wanted his death. The world seemed to slow down for Naruto as he watched helpless as the man rushed towards him, he normally would have gotten up and run by now but the blow to the head had severely disorientated him. Watching the man brought the same question as always to his mind _'Why?'_.

It took Hitomi mere seconds to comprehend what was happening, Naruto was being attacked in broad daylight. This was something that was almost beyond comprehension to Hitomi, was their hatred for him so deep that they would risk their lives to attack him in front of witnessing eyes. Although looking around and seeing their expressions she realised that they would not tell what really happened, more or less they would just say the Naruto started it. Quickly glancing over to Naruto she felt her rage build to staggering levels as she saw his prone form lying on the ground not even ten meters away bleeding from his head, she also saw a man running towards him to which she assumed he was the original person to throw the bottle. Before even a second had passed, Hitomi appeared in front of Naruto in the Gentle Fist stance ready to defend him.

The man barely noticed the Hyuga matriarch standing in front of the demon child before it was too late, and had a difficult time stopping his advance and crash into her. He stood their momentarily about two meters away from her before slowly lifting a finger and pointing to her. "Step aside Hyuga-sama! This demon has possessed you and I must kill him to free you!" Hitomi's stance at this loosened a little from shock but she quickly regained her composure and stared at him with a harsh gaze.

"You are all fools!" She said while shifting her head from side to side glancing at all the onlookers. "This child is protecting you every single day that he lives! And yet you treat him worse then garbage, like he killed your closest friends and family! You beat him and call him a monster but I say that you are all more monsters then he could ever be! What human being could ever treat a child like this and actually be able to live with themselves!" Hitomi's voice portrayed just as much disgust and fury at the villages as her threatening stance did. Although her words were wasted on many, the few villages that still had yet to decide what to think of the hanyou took in her words, just not to heart.

Naruto was lying behind Hitomi thanking his lucky stars that he had an adult in his life that didn't hate him and was actually defending him against what could have been a very painful beating. But he was also saddened by this because it would mean that they would hate her too. Naruto jumped suddenly when a hand touched his head gently, but relaxed when he recognised the scent.

"N-Naruto-kun a-are you a-alright you're bleeding?" Hinata asked with concern while gently sitting down next to him, she pulled him slightly closer and rested his head on her legs and noticing that he was shacking and remembering when he first woke up she began stroking his ears to calm him down. Having him resting on her lap seemed to comfort Naruto greatly, but that didn't suppress her sadness and sympathy for him. _'Why do they do this to him, he is just a little fox-boy. They are so mean to him and hurt him but why? Is it because of his kekkei genkai? But I thought Konoha loved them so why would they hate his?'_ Hinata just continued to stroke Naruto as the tears fell from her eyes as she couldn't find a valid reason as to why someone could be so horrible to anybody let alone a boy just a little older then her.

Naruto for his part was almost brought to tears, but not from the pain but from happiness that he had people in his life that cared for him. Slowly moving his head to look at his best friend in the eyes he nodded his head slightly and told her he was fine and would be healed soon. He stiffened and sniffed the air however when he caught onto a familiar scent, the scent of Anbu. Within seconds and without a sound a squad of Anbu that had sensed the killing intent leaking from this area appeared right next to Hitomi. One of the, obviously their leader, turned to Hitomi and bowed low in respect. "Hyuga-sama what seems to be the problem?" He asked in an emotionless sounding voice. Hitomi had also sensed them coming so she was not started by their sudden arrival like the surrounding villagers were.

"Quite simple really, this here man has violated the hokage's law and attacked Naruto. I would like him taken away from my sight immediately." The Anbu leader nodded in silent agreement and issued a command to the two Anbu on his right who proceeded to drag the offending man away to Ibiki.

The Anbu leader bowed again before asking if she required anything more. "Yes actually there is something you can do, would you mind escorting me, my daughter, and Naruto-kun, to the hokage's tower. I do not want anymore harm to come to him or potentially us either." Again the leader nodded and issued a command to the others, in one movement all of the Anbu squad had left except for one. The remaining Anbu bowed low and introduced herself as 'Cat' to Naruto, Hinata and Hitomi and that she would be their escort, to Naruto she looked like she was still in her teens and yet she was an Anbu. Of what Naruto could see of her she looked like a very beautiful girl, she had long purple hair and was thin but healthy with defining muscles in her arms and legs, she also wore the standard Anbu outfit and it annoyed Naruto that he couldn't see her face.

Hitomi, now pleased that this was all dealt with, walked quickly over to Naruto to make sure he was ok. Kneeling down next to him she pushed back his hair a little to see the damage done to his skull, much to her surprise however the wound was almost fully healed. She had known that he healed fast if any indication from his last incident was any indication, but to actually heal such a great gash in a matter of seconds was truly amazing. However his body may have been able to repair itself easily, his mind was not and if it weren't for Hinata gently stroking the young hanyou's ears and whispering comforting things to him he probably would have gone into shock.

"Are you alright Naruto-kun, do you want me to carry you the rest of the way?" Hitomi said patiently, waiting for Naruto's head to stop spinning so he could think straight and respond to her.

"Um… woooooe, my head feels like its spinning… I can't see you clearly Hitomi-san, I can only smell that it's you. Um… I'm sorry about that… I should have told you about them... I hope it didn't waste too much time." When Hitomi looked into his eyes she saw sorrow and regret present inside them, he wasn't sad that he was struck but he was upset because he thought that this attack was all his fault. Hitomi gently picked the little hanyou up off of her daughters lap and cradled him in her arms.

"Never Naruto-kun, I will always protect you as long as I live, I don't find that a waste of time. You are a wonderful person Naruto-kun, I just wish that everyone else could see that too." At this Naruto began to slowly cry into her shirt as he buried his face into her chest. Hitomi just held him close while he cried and walked over to Hinata and grabbed on to her hand before once again walking towards the hokage's tower, with 'Cat' close behind them constantly scanning around her, and if you watched carefully you could also see Naruto's ears flick slightly also scanning around.

As they approached the massive red building that was the hokage's tower, Naruto had stopped his sobs and was once again walking by Hitomi's side, well walking for Naruto anyway. It seemed that the little hanyou was very excited about seeing the 'old man' again, his whole demeanour slowly changed the closer they got and Hitomi knew this is what Naruto would normally be like, if he was ever allowed that chance. Hinata just held on to her mother's hand and giggled at Naruto's frequent attempts to make her mother go faster by pulling on her hand. 'Cat' just followed in silence. At the main entrance of the hokage tower two Chunin stood guarding it. They quickly stepped aside for Hitomi, Hinata and 'Cat' but they attempted to prevent access to Naruto who was slightly lagging behind. The Chunin however quickly parted once again when Hitomi glared at them releasing a fairly large killer intent at them, her gaze simply spoke one thing 'Just try to stop him and I'll kill you'.

Needless to say the two guards were more then shocked that the Hyuga matriarch was around here let alone with the demon child, they both thought that she would simple think both things just too below her. They both noticed that the Anbu that was escorting them also gave them a glare, she might not particularly know what to think about Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou, but she also didn't want any harm to come to him as her mission was to ensure his safety while he was taken to the hokage. She hadn't failed a mission yet and was certainly not going to start. After passing the main entrance they came to the vast spiral of steps that lead to the hokage's office.

Naruto, not being able to control his excitement anymore, ran up to the stair and raced up them on all fours trying to reach the top as fast as possible. Hitomi just shook her head with a smile then picked her daughter up and slowly followed after him. 'Cat' by this stage had already disappeared. By the time Naruto had reached the top of the stairs he was panting slightly, regardless of how much energy he had, for a five year old climbing so many stairs at the pass he did it was still tiring. After Naruto caught some of his breath back he moved forward towards the doors of the old mans office at the same time trying to avoid being detected by the receptionist. It wasn't that he had anything against the woman it was that she just hated him, like most of the village and he didn't really want to be beaten and thrown out before he could see the old man.

So creeping up to the doors Naruto opened them slightly to have a quick scan of the room before he entered. He grinned from one side of his face to the other when he saw that the old man was asleep, and he quickly but quietly made his way onto the old man's desk and grabbed a large folder that was on a pile of papers, his grin just increased when he realized that the old man was still sleeping. It seemed that all his time hiding from the villagers was beneficial after all.

Hitomi reached the top of the stair just moments after Naruto had entered the hokage's room and she placed Hinata down and walked towards the receptionist. Seeing that Naruto was not in this room she assumed that he had already entered the hokage's office. The receptionist was busy scribbling away on a large stack of paper and didn't notice Hitomi until she rang the bell on the desk. The woman was startled by the sudden noise and shot up instantly, sending the pen she was using as well as a few sheets of paper through the air, causing Hitomi to smile in amusement and Hinata to giggle. Apologizing profusely for her distraction and realising who she had kept waiting the receptionist quickly ushered the two Hyuga's into the hokage's office. The first sight they were greeted with was Naruto standing upon the hokage's desk with a large folder in his hand. Before Hitomi could even think to say anything to stop him Naruto slammed the folder down _hard_ upon the table, creating a large bang that the other side of Konoha might have been startled with.

Sarutobi was having a peaceful dream about burning all his paperwork with a fire jutsu until he was rudely pulled from it by an extremely loud bang noise from in front of him. He shot up like a rocket and was instantly in a defensive stance, his sight and hearing were a little off though having just woken up and had no idea of what had happened. That is until heard laughter that made his heart almost stopped. Quickly rubbing his eyes his heart once again skipped a beat as he saw a small kitsune hanyou rolling in laughter on his desk next to a large folder, it didn't take much to see that he had been woken up by the folder, pulled from his wonderful dream. But that is not what Sarutobi really cared about it was the little blond haired hanyou on his desk that really mattered.

Hitomi didn't know what to say or do. Naruto had just woken up their hokage by banging a folder on his desk, Hitomi knew they must have known each other but she was sure that no matter how close they were the hokage would not take lightly to being awoken in such a rude manner, he was the hokage after all. Her fears were proven true when Sarutobi reached out and picked Naruto up by the scruff of his neck instantly silencing his laughter. Thinking that it would hurt him she went to protest but quickly regained her posture when she saw Naruto and the hokage were smiling at each other. It obviously didn't hurt him being held like that as he would have already cried out in pain, looking closer to where he was being held she noticed that he had an increased amount of skin at the back of his neck. Essentially he was being held like one would pick up a fox or cat. Now this was interesting to her because if she ever needed to calm him down or get his attention she could always just pick him up by his scruff. She was brought out of her thoughts when Naruto spoke up to the hokage.

"Hey old man! I've been trying to find you for ages! Ever since I was kicked out of the orphanage I've been looking for you!" Naruto voice clearly displayed his happiness at seeing his 'old man' again. Sarutobi could do nothing but smile as small tears slowly formed in his eyes. Pulling him close, Sarutobi just hugged the little hanyou tightly as the tears rolled off his face. Hitomi was slightly taken back by the hokage's show of emotion but when she actually thought about it, Sarutobi was always very close with Naruto's father so it was easily understandable that he felt this attached to the little hanyou.

Hinata just watched in silence as happy tears slowly fell from her face. Sarutobi was almost at a lose for words, he had thought Naruto to be dead and his heart broke in two. But after hearing that Naruto was alive and he was being looked after at the Hyuga compound he was overjoyed and couldn't wait until his could see the young hanyou again. Releasing the boy from his hold, he placed the smiling boy back down on his desk. Naruto too was overjoyed at seeing his 'old man' again and his happiness was clearly evident in the movements of his tail and general body language.

"Naruto-kun… I was so worried. After I went to the orphanage and couldn't find you I sent every available Anbu I had to try and find you… but you just seemed to vanish. I thought you were dead." To this Naruto's happy posture shifted a bit, but it quickly returned back as he pointed a clawed hand towards Hitomi and Hinata.

"Well old man, I would have been dead if it wasn't for Hitomi-san and my best friend Hinata-chan. Hinata-chan found me with her Byakugan after… after I was beat up a little by some villagers…" Naruto's tail slowed down in its movements as Naruto recalled the 'little beating' he received, the pause was slight but didn't go unnoticed by either Hitomi or Sarutobi. His happy mood once again quickly returned when he continued his short explanation. "And then they took me to their hospital and I met all of their family. Most of them are nice, but I don't like the ones who are mean to the Hyuga with the curse seal thingy." Naruto's face darkened as he recalled the damage that elder had caused to Tohru, Sarutobi was surprised that Naruto knew about the cage bird seal, but nodded his head in agreement. His gaze then shifted to Hitomi and the little four year old Hinata, he noticed that Hinata was slightly pink in the face and was clutching her mothers dress. He assumed that she was just a little shy.

Nodding his head towards them he then thanked Hitomi and Hinata profusely for their kindness to Naruto. Hinata just went redder from the praise, and even Hitomi was quite flattered that the hokage was this thankful. She had originally thought that the Hokage had allowed this all to happen, but seeing him and his relationship with Naruto she realised that she was horribly mistaken. She did however want to make a point right now and correct something that Naruto had said.

"With all due respect Hokage-sama I would like permission to correct Naruto-san in his statement to the beating." Sarutobi just laughed and told her to not worry about the formalities while around him as they made him feel old. "Very well Hokage-sama, what Naruto-kun said about receiving a little beating was totally incorrect. I have here the medical report that was created upon taking him to the Hyuga hospital." Handing Sarutobi the report she waited patiently as he read it, she watched thankfully when his face slowly hardened with anger until it almost became the embodiment of rage itself. All present in the room slowly found it hard to breath as the killer intent he released quickly rose, he quickly calmed himself down though when he realised what he was doing. Filing the report away for further use he turned to Naruto, again with tear filled eyes.

"I'm… I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that… Naruto-kun. I promise that I will make sure it won't happen again, you won't have to suffer for their stupidity any longer." To everyone's surprise Naruto just grinned then jumped off the desk and ran over to Hitomi and Hinata.

"That's ok old man. If I had the choice I would do it all again." This completely floored everyone in the room. How could he possibly want to suffer through all that torture again, it wasn't until Naruto finished his statement that it all made sense. "Because if I didn't get all beaten up, then I would never have met Hitomi-san, Hinata-chan and everyone else from the Hyuga Compound." Naruto proclaimed while waving his tail happily. Sarutobi just smiled, he always knew on how much Naruto wanted to make friends and it seemed that now having them brightened up the little hanyou's life, he knew that Naruto would sacrifice anything for them, even himself. It was almost as if he had it written on his forehead, you could see by just the look in his eyes that he cherished them more then life itself even after only knowing them for a short time. Turning to Hitomi he thanked her for showing Naruto the kindness he should have received from the villagers. He then turned to little Hinata and his smile increased even more.

"And you Hinata-chan are owed a great debt that can never be paid for saving Naruto-kun. You must be really strong for your age to use your Byakugan so well." Hinata's face turned bright red at the praise she received, trying to hide herself from her own embarrassment she buried her head into her mother's dress. It wasn't often that other people apart from her parents complemented her, and to receive one from the hokage himself was just a little much for her, Sarutobi just smiled at her shy nature. "Well can you promise to be the best friend you can be for Naruto-kun? I know he very much needs a friend as kind as you in his life." Hinata managed to pull her face out of her mothers dress enough so she could speak out a small 'I promise'.

He was about to say something to Naruto when he saw the young hanyou looking confused at Hinata's red face when he noticed Hitomi's urgent look in her eyes. Realising that she wanted to speak to him privately he raised his hand and called for a person called 'Yugao'. To everyone's surprise the Anbu that originally escorted them to the hokage's tower appeared kneeling in front of Sarutobi. "What can I do for you Hokage-sama." Her voice was calm and collected, without the hint of emotion, such a tone was common for Anbu as their missions involved tasks that required the need to shut away your emotions. Sarutobi didn't particularly like that tone, especially from one that had only joined Anbu a few months ago and only still in training.

"I have an important task for you Yugao-san, I normally would only trust such a task to my most trusted Anbu but due to your successful mission rate and that you have only been with Anbu for a few months. I believe that you would be perfect." Yugao felt slightly honoured that the Hokage trusted her enough with such a mission and she smiled a bit with pride, although none could tell because of her mask.

"I would be honoured to perform such a mission Hokage-sama." Sarutobi smiled when he heard the tone of her voice, it was much more pleasant to talk to someone with emotion rather then just an empty shell. Pointing to both Naruto and Hinata he began to tell the details of the mission.

"Well technically this mission would only be a D rank if you went by the book, but its importance is much higher. I need you Yugao-san, to take both Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan out to this address for lunch while Hitomi-san and myself talk about some very important matters." He said while quickly writing a message on a scrap piece of paper and after handing her the paper he then handed her a fairly large back of coins. Yugao was sure their was more to this mission then just simple babysitting, for starters why would the Hokage only trust a certain few Anbu members and secondly why would he need an Anbu to look after two kids. When she thought about it however it was probably due to the little hanyou just behind her. When she had escorted all three of them to the tower she wasn't told on why they needed a bodyguard, but thinking back Naruto was pretty beat up and had been bleeding until Hitomi cleaned him up.

Nodding her head in acceptance of the mission she slowly rose and turned to the two she would be guarding. The little Hyuga girl seemed nice enough, although just by looking at her she could see that the girl was very nervous. It was understandable that such a small girl would be shy but Yugao wondered how long she would stay like that, if she was a Hyuga and especially if she was the Hyuga heir then they wouldn't put up with her being seen as weak and would most likely beat her shyness out of her. The Hyuga girl, Yugao could understand the need for a bodyguard but the need for a bodyguard for the blond hanyou was a complete mystery to her however, she knew that he was the jincuriki for the Nine Tailed Fox and that the fox's chakra had altered his body when it was sealed away. But beyond that she knew nothing, sure she had heard people talking about him and saying things that couldn't possibly be true about him but other then that she couldn't understand the need for one.

That is until she actually thought about the Fox and Naruto's resemblance to it because of him being a hanyou, the reason he needed a bodyguard was because the villagers thought he _was_ the Fox. Well that would explain many things, such as their glares and harsh words and perhaps even the beating he seemed to have before she escorted them to the tower, but to Yugao such a reason was ridiculous. She was their when Sarutobi had explained what had happened, and to her it made perfect sense. Naruto was the jailer not the fox, but sadly his body was altered by the sealing and he became a kitsune hanyou. To her such a damned life already would be hard but if the villagers really did think he was the Fox reborn then she didn't want to think on how he had been treated.

She was brought from her thoughts when Sarutobi continued his explanation of the mission. "Yugao-san, this is no ordinary babysitting mission. As I'm sure you have figured out or heard by now that the village doesn't actually hold Naruto-kun here in high regards." Naruto's tail and ears drooped a little at this, and Yugao actually found herself feeling sorry for the little hanyou, sure she didn't know on how badly he had been treated but she could imagine. "I need you to blend in with the villagers so they don't know that Naruto-kun is being guarded and I want you to report anyone that even threatens him." Yugao nodded her head in agreement and took off her mask; if she was to blend in with the villagers she certainly wasn't going to need it. Naruto was over joyous that Yugao had removed her mask as it was irritating him to the extreme that he couldn't see her face.

One of his reasons being that he was curiousness another being that he wanted to see her eyes, he wanted to see how she looked at him. He waited patiently until Yugao was finished talking to the Hokage and turned to him to analyses her face, Hitomi sensing his body tighten up assumed he was worried about Yugao and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Naruto visibly relaxed when Yugao's face held no malice, no anger, no thoughts of revenge towards him. The only emotion that could be found could only be classed as sympathy. Analysing her face further for any signs of hidden intent Naruto noticed on just how young she must be, she looked about only sixteen. Her face was quite flawless from what Naruto could see and it was well defined with feminie features. Her eyes being Naruto's favourite, they were a deep brown almost the colour of sand, and they were quite slanted, they contrasted well with her long purple hair. Naruto was instantly reminded of a cat, hence the Anbu identity.

"Wow, your really pretty Yugao-san." Naruto said excitably while giving a big smile, his tail gently waving from side to side. Yugao was a little shocked by his complement but didn't let it show, there was only one other person who called her pretty but he was a different case. The little hanyou in front of her continued to smile for a few more seconds but it slowly disappeared when she didn't answer him, he was worried that she didn't like him or was somehow insulted by what he said. To him saying such a thing was natural and he couldn't understand why she could have taken it the wrong way. Yugao noticed his drop in mood and realised that he must have thought that he had insulted her in some way. She wasn't a mind reader, but she wasn't an Anbu for nothing, it was more then easy enough for her to pick up his thoughts from his body movements. Just looking at him for a second you could tell that his emotions heavily influenced his body, as something even as small as a tail flick could be seen as a sign of change in his thoughts.

Kneeling down in front of him, she gave him a kind smile and thanked him for his complement. This seemed to greatly brighten up his mood as his smile quickly returned and his tail increased the speed of it waging. In a small way, Yugao found herself thinking that the little hanyou was quite cute and probably would have hugged him if she didn't know that she had to keep her emotions in check to be a good shinobi. Especially considering that she was in the presence of the Hokage. Standing back up she excused herself politely from the Hokage and Hitomi, and took the two children out of the room promising that she would keep them both safe.

When Hitomi and Sarutobi were both sure that Yugao and the children were out of hearing range which, because of Naruto's great hearing, took quite a while, they both turned to each other and Hitomi sat down in the chair in front of Sarutobi's desk. "Hokage-sama… we need to talk… we need to talk about Naruto-kun." Sarutobi just nodded his head in understanding, when it came to Naruto there was always a lot to explain. But he knew that this time it was to empathise and support him. Pulling out a large folder from under his desk, Sarutobi asked her what exactly she wanted to know. By just seeing the look on her face he knew it was going to be a long discussion.

Naruto could barely contain his excitement as he left the Hokage's tower, not only did he finally find the old man but he was also going to get some lunch. Hinata walked slowly by Yugao and smiled as he bounced around the place. Yugao also found the hyperactive hanyou amusing, she would have thought that he would be much quieter then he was being but it didn't really bother her, he was a child after all. They continued walking for about two minutes until Naruto suddenly stopped and twitched his ears from side to side. His whole body just seemed to turn to stone and his tail ceased its irregular patterned movements.

Yugao was concerned on what could possible cause such a huge change in the little hanyou and found herself instantly on guard as she scanned for possible reasons, it wasn't until Yugao glanced in the direction Naruto's ears flicked to, that she saw and felt why. On the other side of the road she saw villagers that had stopped their day-to-day activities and were just staring at them, or more particularly Naruto. Their eyes were cold, and they held no emotion for him except for anger, fury, malice, hatred, they were thirsty for revenge against the fox and they were going to risk their own lives just to get that revenge by attacking the fox's jailer. To Yugao they were idiots to think this way, both of her parents died fighting the fox and she didn't blame Naruto, no, she just honoured her parents by becoming the best shinobi she could, to prove that their lives weren't taking in vain.

Naruto's head slowly drooped low followed by his tail as he heard their words of hatred, even at such a distance his ears could hear what they said.

"_There he is! There's the little monster!"_

"_Quick go get him, he hasn't been seen for a while he must have been of killing someone to satisfy his lust for blood!"_

"_What are you crazy! We can't attack the little demon in broad daylight the Anbu will see us and we will be executed." _

"_I say it's worth it! The longer the fox lives the more his powers will return and the longer it has to plot our downfall, it did it once before why not again?"_

"_But… But what about that woman?_

"_What about that woman?" _

"_Well… she looks like she might be a ninja."_

"_What why would a nin-" _

Naruto covered his ears with his hands to block out the sounds of their voices, they hated him with there very souls and he still didn't know why, not why they called him names, not why they hurt him, not why they looked at him like he was worthless. Nothing, he had no idea why they were like that to him and that is what probably caused him the most pain. Seeing Naruto cover his ears Hinata knew that he had heard something from the villagers that had upset him, if judging by his teary expression was anything to go by. Hinata wanted to comfort him because she knew what it was like to hear the harsh words of others, hers being the clan elders, but she had no idea how. So she did the only thing she knew that would work, he walked up behind him and hugged him while only slightly blushing at the close contact.

Naruto's whole body froze for a second until he realised it was Hinata. Turning his head slightly to her she just smiled and told him that he should always remember that he wasn't a monster especially to her and her mum. Naruto's mood pick up tremendously at this and he lowered his hands from his ears and wrapped his tail around her waist in an attempt to return the hug, which caused a small 'eep' to be heard from the young Hyuga heiress. Yugao just smiled at the scene of friendship before her, if she wasn't such a serious ninja then she might have got a little teary, but instead she just bent down to the two children under her care and told them that they should all leave this place and head to the place the Hokage had told her to take them.

As they all continued further, Yugao turned around slightly to glare at all the foolish villagers that were around them then she pulled out the letter the Hokage had given her and read its instructions.

"Yugao, I thank you on taking this mission on such a short notice and your assistance in this task will be noted and added as a high B rank mission to your profile. You will also be compensated for such a mission with the usual pay rates for a mission of that calibre." Yugao paused at this and recalled the large bag of coins that she had been given and wondered if she was paid a little in advance.  
"You are probably wondering right now why I gave you the bag of money earlier, well the reason is that Naruto probably hasn't been eating very well for the last few months and knowing Naruto he would be able to eat enough to empty most of that bag." Yugao almost giggled at this, as if such a small child could eat that much.  
"Well whether you believe me is up to you, but I want you to tell Naruto that he is welcomed to eat as much as he wants, the same also goes for little Hinata. Once again thank you for your assistance in this task, I just hope that you also see Naruto in the same light that I do." At the bottom of the letter there was the name of the restaurant that she was to take the two children to, 'Ichiraku Ramen'.

As they all walked through the town Yugao noticed that almost everyone they passed seemed to glare daggers at the little hanyou in her care. The first lot of them were bad enough but this was just pathetic, did the whole village hate him. As far as any incidents went there was only one and that was just a simple stone being thrown at him which Yugao easily caught before it reached them. Naruto had engaged himself in a deep conversation with Yugao and Hinata, although it seemed that Naruto was doing most of the talking. Yugao was interested into his 'bloodline' and asked a few question about its capabilities which Naruto seemed more then happy to answer, so much so that if Yugao could put a word to it, it would have to be 'proud'. He seemed proud of his fox features regardless of how much trouble it caused for him, when asked why he simply said it was because he was told that both of his parents were foxes.

Yugao actually had to think on that for a second, she had known who Naruto's parents were but they weren't hanyou's, he was the only hanyou because of the side effects of having the Fox sealed within him, so why would he be told that his parents were foxes. Yugao went wide eyed and a small blush appeared on her cheeks when she realised why, because both of his parents were drop dead gorgeous/handsome, but the blush on her cheeks were mainly because she had an image of the Fourth Hokage with nothing but a fox tail and ears. Shaking her head to remove the thoughts from her mind she realised that had finally arrived at their desired location. Naruto's nose instantly began to convulse at the onrush of smells coming from inside the little restaurant, Yugao had noted that Naruto frequently scanned his surrounding with his nose and ears, but this was off the charts. Yugao thought that the ears twitching to the sides were the cutest things she ever saw, but she would never admit to it.

Naruto was practically drooling over the scents that were reaching his nose and had to contain himself from running over to the little side restaurant and diving for the food. He turned back to Yugao and Hinata and asked if this was the place that they were heading too, and upon her nod and announcement of its name Naruto changed to all fours and shot off like a bullet heading for restaurant now known to Naruto as Ichiraku Ramen. However, when he reached within three meters of the building his memories from past experiences returned and he froze on the spot. Eventually catching up to him Hinata asked why he stopped running, but then noticed his body was slightly shaking.

"N-Naruto-kun… Why a-are you shaking, a-are you a-alright?" Hinata asked with her always kind and caring voice. Naruto turned to face his best friend and his body slightly relaxed under her concerned gaze.

"It's… I just remembered a few things… that's all. I haven't found a shop or nothing that even lets me enter… last time… last time I tried, they really hurt me." Hinata and Yugao shared a concerned glance then Hinata slowly grabbed Naruto by the hand and pulled him into a standing position.

"Don't w-worry N-Naruto-kun, they won't h-hurt you while me or Y-Yugao-san are here." Naruto gave his friend a huge grin and moved his tall happily and thanked her for being so nice, to which she responded with a small blush. Yugao also voiced her reassurance that she would not let any harm come to him. Feeling reinvigorated that his friends would keep him safe Naruto marched with Hinata in one hand into Ichiraku Ramen.

If the smell from the delicious cooking could get any better Naruto might have needed something to dull his sense of smell or risk being knocked unconscious. All the multitude of flavours blended together into an aroma that was surely to be a miraculous creation. Yugao entered shortly after the pair and sat down in one of the vacant seats, she thought it was quite lucky that they had entered when no one else was around as it would make her job a lot easier. As she sat down a middle aged man who appeared to be the main chef approached the counter.

"Well hello there ma'am, I welcome you to Ichiraku Ramen. My name is Teuchi Ichiraku." The man seemed quite happy to serve her and seemed to emit a happy aura. A young girl that must have been about seven stood next to him and introduced herself after, who Yugao assumed, was her father.

"Hello miss, my name is Ayame Ichiraku, what can I get you?" The girl was even more cheerful then her father and had the most beautiful smile. Her hair was dark brown and so were her eyes and we wore a waitresses dress. All-in-all Yugao thought she looked cute and smiled back at the young girl and introduced herself then ordered some miso soup and green tea. Happily scribbling down the orders Ayame went to turn around, but Yugao calmly said that the children would like to place orders too. At this Ayame spun around and looked for said children and was surprised to find two red and white fox ears sticking out over the counter.

Naruto was thoroughly annoyed at the height of his stool, it was just as tall as he was! Trying desperately to climb Naruto spared a small glance at Yugao and was shocked to see a small smirk on her face, as if finding his predicament amusing. Turning back to his seat to get rid of Yugao's smirk he braced himself and crouched low before jumping high into the air and landing on the counter. Ayame and Teuchi looked beyond shocked at the small hanyou that had just 'jumped' up onto their counter. Shaking his head Naruto looked over to a now shocked Yugao and gave her a big grin as in to say 'Har Har look what I did'.

Hearing a small voice below Naruto remembered about Hinata and placed his tail over the edge of the counter. Nervous about grabbing hold of his tail because of what happened last time, Hinata slowly outstretched her hands and placed a good firm grip around it while at the same time not squeezing to tight. Raising his tail as soon as she grabbed on, Naruto hoisted her up and placed her onto her chair while she emitted a small 'eep' of surprise, before jumping down off the counter onto his own.

If the three of them were shocked before about him jumping up to the counter, that previous feeling had nothing on this. Naruto had just lifted up a girl around his own age with just his tail. Naruto sat in his seat patiently but as the two Ichiraku's stared at him, his nerves began to slowly ebb away and his mind was left to wander. Did they hate him like all the other villagers? Did they want to hurt him too? Realising they were scaring the little hanyou Teuchi slowly walked towards the counter and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Your Naruto am I correct?" Teuchi asked with a smile, Naruto didn't detect any hidden intentions in his voice so he nodded his head in reply. "I have heard a lot of stories about you," Naruto's ears dropped at this, they did hate him after all, but before Naruto could get the chance to prepare to run Teuchi continued his sentence. "But I don't believe a single one of them, I knew your father Naruto-kun and he would be very disappointed in me if I believed such horrible rumours. I am Teuchi Ichiraku and this is my daughter Ayame." Naruto was almost too shocked for words at the mention that this man knew his father and that he wouldn't believe the stories about him.

"You… you knew my father?" was all the little hanyou managed to say. Teuchi nodded with a smile.

"I sure did, he was such a magnificent ninja too, practically one of the strongest and so was your mother. It hurt the village deeply when they died. But at least they left something of them behind to continue there legacy." Teuchi said while giving the little hanyou a pat on the head. Naruto was slightly saddened at the reminder of his parent's deaths but it made it easier to deal with knowing that Teuchi thought highly of them as well as him. After Teuchi removed his hand from a top Naruto's head he turned to the little Hyuga girl that was sitting on the seat next to Naruto, by the look on her face and they way she was twiddling her fingers he assumed that she was a little shy. He did however recognise who exactly she was, _'This could be good for business, the heiress to the Hyuga clan.'_

"And you my dear must be Hinata Hyuga heiress to the Hyuga clan. I must say you are quite a beautiful young lady." Although Teuchi was just trying to be nice in the end it just seemed like he embarrassed her more then anything. As Hinata was glowing bright red from the complement, Naruto decided now was also the perfect time to agree with Teuchi stating that offcourse his friend was very pretty. Naruto then looked at his friend with curious eyes, he had seen her face change colours before but not like this, this time it looked like her face was catching fire and it worried Naruto deeply.

"Um… are you ok Hinata-chan, your face is kinda red? Are you sick or something?" After snapping back to reality all Hinata could do was slowly nod her head to let him know that she was fine, she just still wasn't use to people saying lots of nice things about her.

After all the introductions were finished Ayame asked what the two young children would like to eat. Naruto just stared at the menu board with eyes filled with stars as he read each one and imagined what they would taste like. Eventually he chose what he thought said Miso Ramen and Hinata just said she would have the same. Ayame scribbled the new orders down with a smile and ran back to help her father. The time that it took to cook their meals was approximately ten minutes, but to Naruto it felt like eternity. He always had a ravenous appetite but usually whenever he was hungry he would just go find something, having to actually wait for the food to cook was almost too much to bare.

As soon as the bowls were placed in front of them Naruto was instantly on his tippee toes staring at the large bowl intently. Ayame giggled at little that the two young children were barely tall enough to reach for their bowls on the counter. Yugao, now actually hungry thanks to the wonderful smells of the restaurant was the first to dig in then quickly followed by Hinata, both eating delicately and ladylike. Naruto was however not digging into his food like the others, he just stood above it sniffing it continuously. By the look of his stance he really wanted to eat the food but the serious look in his eyes told them something else was more important. It was eventually Hinata who asked the question on everyone's mind.

"Um… Naruto-kun, I was just w-wondering… um, why are you s-smelling your food o-over and over… d-don't you want to e-eat it?" Hinata thought that she had somehow insulted her friend because he flinched slightly at her question and his ears and tail dropped a little. Naruto sniffed a few more times before facing his friend.

"Well yer I do want to eat it, I'm just checking for anything bad." This perked Yugao's interest, it wasn't uncommon for children to dislike a particular vegetable or something, but his seriousness said that he was checking for something else. So she promptly asked him what it was that was considered 'bad'. "Well… I'm not sure really, I just remember a woman when I was littler… she was so kind to me… and she offered me food when I had none, but… but…" Naruto's eyes slightly twitched almost like he was going to cry, Yugao noted this and knew that something must have gone wrong. "But I smelt something weird about it and when I ate the food, my stomach began to really hurt… soon I began chocking and… and small bits of blood came out of my mouth… It hurt so much…" the memory soon became too much for the little hanyou and his eyes gave way to a large flood of tears. Everyone around him could easily guess at what had been done, the woman had tricked the little hanyou by pretending to be nice and then giving him poisoned food.

Hinata reached out for her friends hand and gave him a reassuring smile, Yugao and Teuchi wanted to say something to help the little hanyou but could not think of anything. That is until Teuchi glanced over at the bowl of ramen in front of him. Moving to the counter Teuchi proceeded to pick the bowl of ramen up and grabbed a soup spoon, this earnt him a confused look from Naruto who had no idea was he was doing. "Well Naruto-kun, I can assure you that I would never ever even think of poisoning your food. You are a customer and also the son of my most valued customer I would never want to hurt you, unlike those disrespectful villagers I could never hate you." This really hit a point on Naruto and the respect he had for Teuchi's grew exponentially. "And if it makes you feel safer I will try some first." And with this Teuchi dipped his spoon into the bowl and promptly swallowed the delicious broth. After which he placed the bowl back in front of Naruto and got him a fresh spoon. Naruto waited a bit but when he saw not adverse effects on Teuchi he went to dig into his food.

Ayame who had been silent most of the time suddenly lost out to her curiosity and asked Naruto if his tail and ears were real. She had never had the story of sealing of the Nine Tailed Fox so she had no idea why he had those appendages, she had been observing them since his arrival and he seemed to have completed control over them.

"What my tail and ears? Of course their real, its part of my bloodline." Naruto exclaimed excitably. "I have a really cool kekkei genkei that gives me that features and abilities of a certain animal, mine just happened to be a fox. Which is really good because I like foxes." Naruto voice was rather loud compared to what it was a few moments ago and everyone assumed that the little hanyou had regained his happy mood. But now the time had come to stop all the chatter because with the bowl of ramen in front of him his stomach had had enough of the torment and it rumbled its displeasure at being kept waiting. Everyone laughed and told him to hurry up and eat his food before it got cold.

Glancing down at the bowl once more Naruto slowly picked up his soup spoon before pouring the contents it held down his throat. The world seemed to run in slow motion as the warm liquid made its way down his neck and into his stomach, the flavours all exciting his tastebuds in ways thought impossible. Naruto's eyes widened from shock and he could barely hold his spoon still in his hand. Teuchi thought that Naruto's expression meant he didn't like the ramen, but was soon proved wrong when the Naruto jumped up on the counter grabbing the bowl and swallowing all of its contents in one _huge_ gulp, stunning everyone around him. It took a few seconds before the effect to fully hit him, but when it did Naruto screamed out so loud that the entire of Konoha had heard his proclamation, one that would be heard on a regular basis for many of the coming years.

"RAMEN IS THE BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD!"


	7. Chapter 6: A house to call home

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Another chapter released as promised.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot in this story.

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Chapter 6: A house to call home

Sarutobi and Hitomi were deep into their discussion about Naruto when all of a sudden they heard what sounded like Naruto yelling at the top of his voice, something about ramen was all they could gleam from it but it was more then enough. Sarutobi chuckled and withdrew his pipe from his mouth.

"Well it seems that Naruto is more like his father then we first thought… I just hope I did the right thing by introducing him to ramen, I remember what Minato use to be like. He would eat nothing but ramen for months on end." Sarutobi and Hitomi had been speaking about Naruto and his life in great depth over the last hour, they had discussed the reasons behind his features being labelled as a bloodline, his treatment by the villagers, his old and soon to be new accommodations and a few other things. But currently they were speaking about the Hyuga elders and their reaction towards Naruto being taken to the Hyuga hospital. "Anyway back on topic, you said that the Hyuga elders threatened you if you didn't force Naruto-kun to leave could you further elaborate on it." Hitomi nodded then recounted the meeting she and her husband had had with the Hyuga elders, with each word Sarutobi's expression darkened. He did not like blackmail as he had had his fair share of it dealing with the council, but this was just sick. "Hmm… I can indeed understand your apprehension then… I say you follow through with their demands for now, but I do believe it would be best if we could find some sort of loophole so that Naruto-kun is able to at least visit. He values your friendship with him more then you could ever possible understand." A wicked smile appeared on Hitomi's face and Sarutobi found himself wondering if they already had such a loophole.

"With all due respect Hokage-sama, I do believe it quite foolish that you didn't think of it yourself." Sarutobi was slightly off put by this but he didn't let it affect him as she didn't mean it to. "Naruto-kun is from the Uzumaki clan correct? He is also the last of the Uzumaki clan making him the head of his clan correct?" At this Sarutobi had a pretty good idea where she was going with this and gave a small smirk. "Then it would be easy enough to arrange weekly clan meetings between the Uzumaki clan and the Hyuga clan." Hitomi gave a slight pause so Sarutobi could get his laughter under control, these were the things he liked about politics turning the councils and clans own rules against then. "And if the meeting just _happened_ to finish early then I don't see why Naruto-kun wouldn't be allowed to _familiaris_e himself with the other clan members." Sarutobi's laughter returned to him as quickly as it left him.

"Well I must say Hitomi-san, your plans are brilliant and I'm sure most agreeable to from all sides." Sarutobi gave one more chuckle before taking a quick puff of his pipe, before withdrawing a large folder from underneath his desk. After he opened it, Hitomi noted that it was information on Naruto. Having a quick glance from where she sat it looked more like political information then anything. "Now Hitomi-san, you and your daughter have spent more time with Naruto-kun then anyone else has so far, even myself I have only been able to see him for a few hours at a time. So I was wondering if you make a few statements before we wrap this meeting up. These are all questions that were created by the council that everyone who came into contact with Naruto must answer, and believe me I don't like a few of them." Hitomi nodded her head, agreeing to make the statements. "Ok first off, Do you believe that Naruto-kun is the Nine Tailed Fox reborn?"

Hitomi was stunned at this, _'What sort of question is that! It sounds just like the sort of question that the council would want answered by the villagers'. _Hitomi, although not that happy with the question answered truthfully anyway. "Of course he isn't the fox!" Sarutobi nodded his head a wrote down her response. The questions continued for about twenty minutes and by the end Hitomi was almost ready to run over and slaughter the council. They made the questions almost like an attempt to accuse him of all sorts of crimes.

"Now this one is quite important Hitomi-san. What do you believe, if any, are any strengths or abilities that you believe Naruto-kun to possess." Hitomi nodded with a smile at this one, at least it had a point.

"Well as you probably already know he has unprecedented healing powers, he also has the ability to hear and smell better then I believe any Inuzuka or Ninja Dog. He also had quite superior strength for a child his age, able to climb trees and lift another person his weight with just his tail. He also has the extra appendage being his tail, and also clawed hands and feet that appear to be able to cut most anything. His chakra capacity is also well beyond normal for his age, around high Genin to low Chunin level. But I believe his greatest ability is his compassion towards his friends and those that show him kindness, a perfect example is when he befriended a friend of mine. She got into trouble with an elder and he saw it fit to punish her by activating her seal, Naruto defended her not by verbaly attacking the elder but taking all the blows that were meant for her." Sarutobi gave a big smile at this last one, he expected something of the sorts but this was beyond his expectations. He was a little concerned about the claim that Naruto could hear and smell better then any Inuzuka or Ninja Dog. Although it was true that foxes had better senses then dogs, he wasn't sure if this applied to Naruto's case.

"Are you sure Hitomi-san? That is quite a claim you are making. Do you have any evidence to support your claim that his hearing and sense of smell is better then any Inuzuka or Ninja Dog?" Hitomi felt like she was in some sort of court house but she would persist with the questions as she knew that they might help Naruto in the long run.

"Well he was able to detect multiple people and the difference between them even after waking up from a coma. He was also able to hear every conversation that occurred this morning at the Branch family's eating hall, and being able to repeat what he heard. But besides my evidence and my words I'm sure that you yourself Hokage-sama have seen him display his abilities." Hitomi said in reply to what she hoped was the last question.

Sarutobi nodded his head with a smile, he had indeed witnessed Naruto's abilities on many occasions, his first being just after the sealing when little Naruto had heard the villagers and the still able shinobi approach the Hokage Tower minutes before they actually arrived. Feeling it was time to conclude their little discussion Sarutobi returned to one of the original topics that they were talking about, a home for Naruto to live in. At first Sarutobi was a little apprehensive about the idea but after receiving Hitomi's reports and her suggestion that he have at least one Jonin level ninja guarding him and his house at all times convinced him otherwise. "Well I thank you for the report Hitomi-san, being the Hyuga Matriarch and having such an outstanding assessment will help counter many of the other claims as well as fill in a few blanks. Now before we go and retrieve Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan I need to explain to you something about him, it has to do with him being a Hanyou." This really caught Hitomi's attention and her stance mirrored her interest. "You see, a Hanyou is half human half demon right? Having different quantities of both human and demonic charka, but never only one. Now a Hanyou that is born into the world through a union of a human and demon will be able to produce both chakras at a normal rate. However, Naruto-kun being a Hanyou due to side effects of the sealing is not able to produce enough demonic chakra to keep his body functioning properly so he is constantly drawing on very minute amounts of demonic chakra from the Fox. Now this wouldn't normally be a problem, but in Naruto-kun's case it can be. You see when a Hanyou becomes unbalanced in a particular emotion they create large amounts of demonic chakra so they can deal with whatever is causing this imbalance easier. In Naruto-kun's case his body will produce more but still not quite enough and he might subconsciously draw massive amounts from the Fox to compensate. It hasn't happened so far and the seal should keep him from drawing too much but we still aren't sure on the outcomes of such an event. In the worse case the Fox could use an opportunity like that to try and influence Naruto-kun, but in the best case he could be under complete control at the time and be able to use the demonic chakra effectively." Sarutobi paused a moment to let this information sink in and to take a quick puff of his pipe. Hitomi was a little concerned for Naruto, she didn't ever want the Fox to take over.

"Now as for the emotion that triggers this response in his body I do believe that it is a mixture of emotions but mainly anger. Mainly due to the Fox's chakra being pretty much the embodiment of anger, hatred and malice. However, from what you have said Naruto does not ever get angry at the villagers and the only time you have seen him angry is when protecting a friend, now I believe if this is what causes Naruto to become angry then he would have no problem of controlling himself. I do believe that other emotions could cause such a response as well but as he learns to control his demonic chakra, which he will have to eventually, he will eventually be able to use more and more without any risks of being controlled. This would have probably been the same case if he was full human, but being a Hanyou means he is more prone to drawing on the chakra which in turn causes more risks for himself and those around him. The risks are also not only caused from Naruto-kun being influenced by the Fox but also that his chakra coils might not be able to handle the stress and could combust, effectively killing him." Sarutobi finished his explanation and starting smoking his pipe, waiting for Hitomi to digest it all properly before leaving to retrieve Naruto and Hinata.

Hitomi was indeed beginning to worry, not from the damage that Naruto could cause using the Fox's chakra but mainly from the damage it could do to him. She never knew that just holding the Fox carried such a risk to your own life, but when she thought about it, a single boy was holding probably the most powerful thing in the world in just his tiny little body so in a way it is understandable that risks are involved. Voicing her understanding and clarifying everything else Hitomi now requested that they now discuss a place for Naruto to say at. Nodding his head in understanding Sarutobi informed his secretary that he would be away from the desk for an important mission for the next two hours and left with Hitomi to retrieve Naruto and Hinata.

Everyone watching in a mixture of shock and horror as the kitsune hanyou in front of them devoured yet another bowl of ramen. Yugao, longs since past the initial shock watching with a curious fascination, mainly for where it all was going to. Hinata watched her friend with wide eyes, she thought that he could eat a lot when he ate those five apples yesterday but this was just mind-boggling. Ayame was a little worried that this unusual eating ability would cause him some stomach problems but her father was watching with stars in his eyes, imagining all the money they could make of such an amazing customer. To him not only was Naruto the son of his good friend but exactly like Minato in his love for ramen except able to eat just as much at such a young age, Naruto was an invaluable customer.

Finishing what everyone counted to be his eighth bowl of miso ramen he slumped down onto his stool and gave a long satisfied sigh. "Ahhh…. That ramen is the best!" Naruto proclaimed while trusting his hand once again into the air as seemed to be his signature move. "I don't think I could eat much more… maybe just one more though." Teuchi was more then happy to comply to his now favourite customer but Yugao told the chef no more as she was concerned that Naruto would be to bloated to move. Naruto gave her a hurt glare and instantely jumped again on his stool shouting that he could eat more. His more then slightly overextended stomach overbalance him however and he fell of his stool hitting the ground hard. Hinata jumped down to ask her friend if he was alright while everyone in the ramen shop burst out in laughter. Naruto was a little off put that they were laughing at him but he himself had to admit that it was quite funny. After everyone had quelled their laughter and Naruto had dusted himself off, he asked in a hopeful voice if Yugao could take Hinata and himself to the park.

While not quite within the scope of the mission, Yugao didn't think that taking him to the park was a bad idea because as long as she stayed with him to protect him it didn't really matter where they were. Besides the park was only around the corner, so informing Teuchi that if anyone comes asking about Naruto and Hinata they he should tell them the she took them both to the park. Nodding his head in agreement he quickly scribbled down the amount owed for the meals to which Yugao just placed the bag of coins on the bench and told him to take what was owed out of it. After everything was paid for Naruto leapt once more onto the counter, his tail moving rapidly while his ears were perked up straight. With a big smile he thank both Teuchi and Ayame for the wonderful ramen and allowing him to enter there restaurant and promised to return as soon as he could. Something that pleased both Teuchi and his wallet.

Jumping back down off the counter Naruto speed forward to catch up with Yugao and Hinata, upon reaching them he linked hands with Yugao. This action surprised her but not totally unexpected, she could easily see that he trusted her. It was written within his eyes that he did, she didn't blame him however because as she looked around she could once again she the hated looks focused upon him. All their hated for the Fox seethed out of them and even Yugao found herself feeling the pressure of their killer intent, but being an Anbu she was easily able to combate it with her own. A shudder ran up her hand and she realised that Naruto was again suffering under their stares and quite possible words judging by his ear movements. Not being able to see him suffer any longer she knelt down and beckoned the two kids to hold onto her. Neither of them knew why she asked them to hold on but both complied, Naruto grabbing onto her arm and Hinata onto her sleeve. Looking up to face the villagers around them on last time she glared harshly at them all releasing a massive amount of killer intent they made a few begin to sweat while others nearly fainted, before performing a one-handed handsign and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Moments later they reappeared in another swirl of leaves right next to the local park, surprising some of the villagers nearby, their surprise turned to anger however when they noticed a certain little fox boy emerge. Naruto in his case was dizzy as hell and completely lost his balance, falling hard on his back. His movements were quickly followed by Hinata and she fell in a heap upon Naruto's tail eliciting a small yelp from him. Yugao almost laughed at the two and their reactions to her jutsu, sure it was always the same with everyone when it was your first time but that still didn't mean that it wasn't funny. After a few moments Hinata regained her balance enough to realise she was on the ground and had landed on Naruto's tail, apologising profusely for hurting him she quickly sat up and moved off of his tail and gently patted it to make sure there was no damage.

Naruto just smiled at his friend and reassured her that he was fine, his tail also seemed to twitch slightly from the attention it was receiving. Soon after Naruto regained his balance enough to stand, he shot up like a rocket and looked and sniffed his surroundings, it was then that he noticed that he was in Konoha's park. Slightly stunned by this he turned to Yugao who just simply explained that she used a short range teleportation jutsu. Upon hearing this Naruto pounced upon Yugao almost knocking her of her feet and pleaded with her to teach him such a cool jutsu.

"Hmm… Maybe when your older Naruto-kun, it is not an easy technique to learn but maybe I'll teach it too you when you are at least chunin level." Yugao calmly replied while trying to resist his puppy eyes… well in his case kitsune eyes. She was a little disappointed in herself right now though, she was an Anbu and yet her emotions were so easily visible today. She just felt so comfortable around the little hanyou, he was so happy and energetic, and Hinata was the embodiment of everything pure and innocent and Yugao found herself slightly saddened by the fact that the Hyuga's would do everything within their power to beat that our of her. Two children so different and yet so alike, and they both seemed to extrude and aura that evoked happiness of those around them. Yugao was brought out of her thoughts when she saw Naruto and Hinata run off towards the playground, well more or less Naruto running while slightly dragging a shy and blushing Hinata along with him.

Naruto couldn't have been happier then he was right now, for years he had dreamt of finding a friend and playing with him/her on the playground. He was so happy it even brought a few tears to his eyes, which he quickly wiped away with a flick of his tail. Hinata however had noticed his tears and was instantly worried that her friend was not happy, voicing her concerns almost made him shed another tear.

"No Hinata-chan I'm not sad… I'm just so happy that I finally have a friend to play with. I had always wanted to play on the playground… but most of it needed two people to play." Naruto's ears were slightly bending at the sad memories but quickly picked up when he spied the swing set. "Come on Hinata-chan! Lets go play on the swings, I always wanted to play on them!" Hinata was only able to utter a small 'ok' before again being dragged off by her friend, not that she minded as she too had also always wanted to play on the swing set.

Yugao watched from the side of the park with a smile as the two ran off towards the swings. Sitting down on the nearest bench she maintained her watch on the two children under her care while also carefully observing the few adults that remained since they arrived. When Yugao first brought the children here she could instantly see that their eyes fell on Naruto, and most of them immediately called to their own children that they were leaving. Which was perfectly fine for Yugao, she did not care if they remained or not. Just as long as they didn't harm Naruto, it was her mission after all. That was one thing she was unsure of too, she wasn't sure if she was protecting him anymore because of just the mission or because of something else. In just a short time of knowing the little hanyou and the Hyuga heiress, she found herself getting slightly attached to them. Naruto was bright, funny and cheerful as long as there was nothing to threaten him nearby, and Hinata was a human angel, caring, soft and kind.

Naruto and Hinata were having the time of their life playing with one another, where before they had no one to play with, now they had a best friend for life. Currently they were still playing of the swing set, Hinata on the swing with Naruto pushing her gently with his tail. Originally Hinata had been too scared to have a go, but with Naruto ensuring that he wouldn't let her fall she gathered up enough courage to try. To her it was the best choice she could have made, as she was laughing her heart out as she swung back and forward on the swing. Naruto had never heard her laugh before only giggle at times, and was taken back a little at her new sound. To everyone around them her laugh was extremely cute and innocent, but to Naruto's sensitive ears her laugh sounded more like the very bells of heaven ringing to the voices of angels. Her laugh was so pure, so sweet, so wonderful that Naruto almost started to cry.

"Wow Hinata-chan, your laugh is really pretty. You should laugh more often." Hinata's little face went bright red at his complement and in her embarrassment her hands let go of the swing causing her to fall backwards. Luckily for her and unluckily she fell on top of Naruto. Jumping off him and apologising again for landing on him, Naruto just laughed as he got up off the ground waving his tail happily and said that he did promise he would catch her. To which both children laughed again.

"Well ok Hinata-chan, I think that's enough swinging so what should we do next?" Naruto asked while still happily waving his tail about. Hinata however didn't know what to do, she had never played with someone before let alone ask what they should play. In her nervous confusing she began to play with her hands as she slowly glanced around for the closest section they could play on. Seeing one that was actually quite interesting to her she pointed a small finger towards it.

"Um… w-what about the s-seesaw N-Naruto-kun, do you um… want t-to play on i-it" Naruto followed the direction that his friend was pointing towards and grinned brightly and quickly nodded his agreement before rushing off to jump on it, with Hinata following suit, but in a less rushed fashion.

Yugao continued to watch the two children play happily together with a smile. In a weird way she actually wished that she was small enough to join in with their fun. She hadn't really had many friends while she was young and most didn't want to play with her on the playground. For the next forty-five minutes the duo switched from activity to activity, including the slippy slide which Hinata had to go down with Naruto because she was so afraid. All in all they couldn't have had a better time and they had played on all the parts of the playground that they were big enough for and thoroughly enjoyed each one. By the time they began to tire, Hinata decided that they should play a calmer game. Naruto, being Naruto, offcourse agreed and asked her what the game was.

"I-its called hide and s-seek, one of us m-must hide… and the o-other must find them, after counting to t-twenty to give the other time to hide." Naruto thought it was an excellent game and quickly begged Hinata if he could be the one to hide. Hinata nodded slowly and giggled slightly as he bounced around thinking out loud where he could hide. When he calmed down enough to think to himself a thought came to his head.

"Um Hinata-chan… you aren't allowed to use your Byakugan, ok? And I promise to block my nose and cover my ears." Hinata's eyes widened at that, she hadn't thought of using her Byakugan. But even if she had she never would as that would be cheating. So nodding her head in agreement Hinata began to slowly count to twenty with her eyes closed while Naruto speed off into the bushes near the playground. Yugao was about to move from her seat so she could better observe where both children where, when she sensed two familiar chakra signatures behind her. Turning around she flashed a smile at the approaching figures of Hitomi and Sarutobi.

Hitomi and Sarutobi had been quietly walking to the park since finding out from Teuchi that's where Yugao had taken Hinata and Naruto. Sarutobi's heart was instantely lightened when he saw the smile Yugao had on her face. _'Now that's the emotions shinobi should have, looks like you have a special ability to bring even the deepest emotions to the front of everyone around you Naruto.'_ Hitomi also noticed the happier mood that Yugao was in and thought almost the very same thought as Sarutobi.

Upon arriving Yugao greeted both of them and explained what had happened while the children were in her care, and also reported the looks that the villagers were giving Naruto when they were walking through the village. Hitomi smiled happily and thanked her for looking after her daughter and Naruto.

"Speaking of my daughter… where is she?" Hitomi looked around with her ever sharp eyes and found the small girl with her hands over her eyes. Hitomi's happy mood slightly dropped thinking that Hinata was crying but was shocked when Hinata finished counting and removed her hands from over her face. Hinata's eyes and face were full of happiness and you could practically see the rays of sunshine beaming off of her. Hitomi had never seen such a look on her daughter's face before and was almost brought to tears then and there. All three adults were shocked at the difference in the young Hyuga, they could all still see that she was the same nervous and shy girl, but her general being seemed to be so much happier. They were so distracted looking upon the bright and happy girl that they failed to notice a dark haired boy about three years older then Hinata approach her.

"Hey guys would you look at this! If it isn't the little cry-baby!" Hinata froze at the sound of the voice of the boy and her body slowly began to shake. She had had a few meetings with this boy and his friends and she always left crying her heart out. They always picked on her and called her horrible names, all because she could catch a ball when they first played together and ever since that day she had always been afraid of them.

"Oh yer it is her. I wonder if she is still as weak and pathetic as she was last time we saw her." A few of the boys laughed at that and soon formed a small semi-circle around the little Hyuga. Hinata began to falter under their intimidating stances and closeness and subconsciously began to back down slightly while tears welled up in her eyes, a movement that didn't go unnoticed by the group of bullies.

"Hey look! She is already about to cry, she is such a baby!" Hitomi had been observing the group of boys around her daughter and quickly remembered who they were. Instantly changing to her 'protective mother' mode she yelled at them from across the park to immediately leave her daughter alone and began to quickly march towards them. The boys quickly began to retreat so that they didn't get into any trouble, but before they fully left, the boy who was the self-proclaimed leader of the group decided to get one more jab into the little girl just for kicks. "Hey cry-baby! Looks like your mommy is coming to save you because you're too weak and pathetic to save yourself! Oh and before we go I bet you still can't catch!" And with that said he threw the baseball he was holding as hard as he could towards the young Hyuga. The ball was moving too fast for Hinata to even think about dodging, and already being in an upset state of mind the most she could was put her hands in front of her face to protect herself.

Hitomi could only watch in horror as the ball sped towards her daughter, had she not been on the complete opposite side of the park she would have easily been able to catch the ball, but the most she could do now was run towards her as fast as possible and hope she got there in time. Everyone was so focused on Hinata however, that they didn't notice a small blur speeding out of the bushes. Hinata watched in fright as the ball quickly approached her and she couldn't do anything but be hit by it. _'I'm… so weak…' _was the only thing that went through her mind as she braced herself for the collision. But it never came.

Just as the ball was about to impact with her face, a red and white tail appeared in front of her and spun around quickly, slamming hard into the ball and sending it flying. Naruto landed on all fours in front of her and growled deeply. Hitomi immediately stopped running and looked on in shock. Yugao and Sarutobi had a similar look on their faces, Naruto had just practically appeared in front of Hinata to stop the ball. Their look's of shock quickly change to that of fear however when they saw Naruto speed off towards the boy who had thrown the ball.

The boy had been told about Naruto by his mother, according to her he was a horrible demon that killed everyone around him, at first he never believed his mother. But as he desperately tried to run away from the fast approaching hanyou he quickly changed his mind. Naruto rushed towards the boy who had dared to hurt his friend, and within seconds had caught up. Leaping into the air, Naruto tackled the boy down to the ground and quickly pinned each limb down, the boys two legs were pinned with Naruto's tail and left foot and his two arms were pinned with Naruto's right foot and left hand leaving Naruto's right hand to hover dangerously above the boys face.

Naruto just stared into the boys quivering face with cold eyes and growled deep again before speaking in a low and dangerous tone. "Why did you try to hurt Hinata-chan?" Naruto continued his low growl and kept the boy pinned down, even though the boy was a fair bit bigger and older, Naruto was too strong for the boy. Many of the adults who had still remained began frenzying about screaming that the demon was attacking a child. Sarutobi did not take this casual insulting very lightly and immediately silence all the adults around him by announcing his presence and demanded to know why there are people breaking his law. Those adults that had any sense quickly left with their kids, however some remained and demanded to know why the Hokage was defending a demon who was clearly attacking a boy, this time it was Hitomi who silenced them.

"Attacking him? If anything Naruto-kun is saving him!" This caused all the remaining adults to drop their mouths to the ground. Saving him? How is that possible? "If any of you are wondering how he is saving him, it is simple! Naruto-kun is demanding to know why that brat dared to attempt to attack MY daughter, the Hyuga Heiress!" The remaining adults were shocked at this and quickly made the connections between what could have happen to the boy if he was to be punished by the Hyuga clan and what is happening to him and decided that he was indeed better off being punished by the demon. After they left Naruto continued growing impatiently with the boy in his grasp as he still had not answered why he tried to harm his friend.

"I'll ask again" Naruto said while moving his clawed hand closer to the boys face. "Why did you try to hurt Hinata-chan!" Hitomi and Sarutobi, even though knowing why Naruto was doing what he was doing, they were still a little concerned for Naruto. For one he could get into a lot of trouble for this, and two they were slightly worried on whether or not Naruto was actually going to hurt the boy. Said boy was still quivering under Naruto's gaze and was lost in his own thoughts as the terror from Naruto's cold eyes bore down upon him, he could do nothing but shake, not trusting his own voice. Naruto by this time had had enough of him and got of him while lifting him slightly into the air by his shirt.

"Now listen here because I'm only going to say this once, do not hurt Hinata-chan or you will be sorry. I can take being bully any day, but I will not allow anything to harm those precious to me. So I don't ever want to hear you picking on anyone ever again!" When Naruto said those words Sarutobi had a brief flashback of the night Minato had sealed the fox.

"…_It was what I decided, I could never defeat the fox, but by sacrificing my life I can seal it. I will not allow anything to harm those precious to me." _

Sarutobi smiled at the little hanyou, even though what he was doing was probably not the right way to go about it he was still happy. '_He is exactly like you Minato… you would have been proud of him.'_

By now the boy had thoroughly wet himself and begged for Naruto's forgiveness, Naruto's cold stare and superior strength was scaring the boy something terrible. Naruto felt bad for scaring the boy like he was but he still wanted to protect his friend, no matter what. "You don't need to apologise to me. You have to apologise to Hinata-chan for the horrible things you said to her, and promise that you won't be so mean ever again. Got that!" Naruto released the quivering boy whom quickly rushed over to Hinata and apologised profusely before running like a dog with its tail between its legs. After the boy had left Naruto's stance softened and he dashed over to Hinata and asked if she was ok.

"Y-yes, I-I'm fine now N-Naruto-kun… T-Thank you for standing u-up for me… I'm… I'm j-just sorry I'm too w-weak to stand up for m-my-myself." Hinata's tears slowly pored down her face as her self confidence quickly plummeted. Naruto was shocked that she said something like that, he had never thought she was weak and they were just trying to hurt her feelings because they were bullies. He sat down next to his friend and wrapped his tail over her shoulder, eliciting a small 'eep' of surprise from her.

"You are not weak Hinata-chan, you shouldn't listen to them. They're bullies and they were only saying those horrible things because they wanted to hurt your feelings. You are one of the strongest people I know, you just need to believe it yourself." Hinata blushed a bright red at being called 'one of the strongest people he knew' and quickly said a small thankyou before hiding her blush in her dress. Hitomi, Sarutobi and Yugao walked over to the two friends with smiles on their faces at such a cute scene. Sarutobi and Hitomi, although proud that Naruto wanted to protect Hinata so much, needed to explain to him the possible consequences of his actions.

"Naruto-kun… we need to talk." Naruto quickly jumped up at the ready to listen to Hitomi, even if he didn't know about what. "I'm proud of the way you defended Hinata-chan without a second thought to your own safety, but… but we believe that you might have done it the wrong way." Naruto already knew that what he did was wrong, but he had to do something didn't he?

"I know Hitomi-san… But I needed to help Hinata-chan and I couldn't think of any other way. I just… I just really hate people who pick on others. I'm sorry." Naruto bowed his head and lowered his tail, fully expecting Hitomi to hate him for his horrible actions. Even if he was only five, he still knew that threatening someone was not the right thing to do. All three of the adults could easily see that he realised his mistake, the seeds of guilt were so visible within his ocean blue eyes. Hinata noticed his saddened face and put a gentle hand on his arm.

"It is good that you realise that you did the wrong thing, but in a way you also did the right thing by protecting your friend you just went about it the wrong way. Next time try to find a less threatening way to solve the problem, besides the surrounding villagers weren't to happy with what you did and that could cause problems for you." Sarutobi said in a wisdom wise grandfather tone. Naruto nodded his head accepting his 'old mans' words and his mood picked up again. _'Such a sea of emotions you are Naruto-kun, your emotions effect everything you are and do and they change so frequently… you may have to learn to control them a little better sometime in the future.' _Sarutobi thought to himself, although Hitomi and Yugao were having similar thoughts.

Sarutobi them turned to Yugao and thanked her for her work looking after Naruto, to which she replied and said it was her pleasure and that she would always be available if ever Naruto needed some protection. After she was dismissed she turned to leave after saying goodbye but was stopped when she felt Naruto's clawed hands reach for hers.

"Thank you Yugao-san for looking after me and Hinata-chan… and um… I was wondering… if you would like to be my friend?" Naruto's face was bright and full of happiness much like it should be for a boy his age, but there was also something else. Yugao could easily see the hopefulness in his eyes almost praying that she would accept his offer of friendship. It had been a long time since someone had influenced her in such a short time before and she did find the little hanyou quite good to be with, But it was more the odd desire to protect him that was really influencing her, she didn't know why but she just knew that she should look after him and being his friend was the absolute least she could do for him, not that she minded one bit. So facing him with a smile she knelt down and lifted the little hanyou into the air and held him in her arms.

"Of course Naruto-kun, there is nothing I would rather be right now then your friend." Naruto's eyes lit up even brighter and he gave her a big hug and made another one of his 'yip' noises that Yugao had heard him make a few times. After he had finished his embrace she gently placed him on the ground before disappearing in a swirl of leaves, but not before telling him that she would visit him once he is settled in. Confused by her words he turned to Sarutobi and asked him what she meant by 'settled in'.

Sarutobi just gave a little chucked, he couldn't wait to see the little hanyou's face once he told him what he was getting. "Come with me Naruto-kun, I will show you what she meant, it's a surprise and believe me your going to love it." Naruto immediately started bouncing up and down, yipping, and saying over and over again that he is getting a surprise. Everyone around him laughed at the little hanyou's antics. After he had calmed down enough, Sarutobi beckoned for Naruto to follow him, and grabbing the little hanyou by the hand slowly led him towards his surprise.

They hadn't even walked ten meters before Naruto's ears twitched slightly. Naruto couldn't hear anyone following him, and turning around saw that Hitomi and Hinata were waving at him. "We shall leave you and hokage-sama alone so you can see your surprise, I promise to contact you soon ok Naruto-kun." Hitomi said while holding her daughters hand.

"G-Goodbye Naruto-kun… I-I will come and p-play with you soon… I p-promise. And thank y-you for saving m-me from the b-big bullies." Hinata said in her usual quite and shy voice. Although you could also hear in her voice that she already missed her friend, even though they were yet to leave.

Naruto waved a goodbye back, but he really wanted them to come and see his surprise too and so turned his eyes pleadingly to Sarutobi. Sarutobi didn't even have to wait for the question to know what Naruto was going to ask. "Yes offcourse they can come and see your surprise too." Naruto again jumped for joy and ran over to Hinata and grabbed her by her hand quickly pulling her along causing her to 'eep' once again. Hitomi just laughed as she watched her daughter practically lifted off the ground as Naruto ran with her towards Sarutobi while quickly explaining that the 'old man' said that Hinata could come too.

As the four of them left towards Naruto's surprise many of the adults who did remain were infuriated that their hokage was not only allowing the demon to live but also seemed to be befriending him. Everyone glared daggers into Naruto's back as he left towards his surprise, all except one. Instead of wishing him dead, a small girl with blond hair and blue eyes watched speechless, unable to even think straight as he faded into the distance. "… Naruto's… alive!"

Naruto continued to bounce and leap all over the place as Sarutobi lead them all to his surprise. He could barely contain his excitement as he tried to pry hints out of his 'old man' which, much to his dismay, learnt nothing but that he would love it. Naruto's excitement was also rubbing off on Hinata, even though she was still holding close to her mother, Hitomi could easily tell that her daughter was almost excited as Naruto even though the surprise wasn't for her. Hitomi and Sarutobi were also excited by more excited about seeing Naruto's face then anything, he was currently acting like a child his age should be allowed to act, happy and bouncy as if it was Christmas.

It took them a good half hour before they reached their destination, Hitomi and Sarutobi had watched with sad hearts as the villagers continued to glare at the little hanyou. Although for the first time in a long time, Naruto was too happy to care. When they arrived Hitomi and Sarutobi looked upwards towards a small apartment building and waited for Naruto's response. Which quickly came after about a minute of silence.

"Um… Hitomi-san… can we go to my surprise now I'm getting really excited!" Naruto proclaimed calmly, even if his voice was still filled with anticipation. Sarutobi and Hitomi just chuckled at his density and it was eventually Sarutobi who put Naruto out of his misery.

"We are here Naruto-kun, this is your surprise, your own home! Now you don't have to live in the orphanage or in the park anymore." Sarutobi explained with enthusiasm. Now that Naruto understood, it only took 1, 2, 3 seconds before he exploded.

"REALLY!" Naruto's voice boomed to volumes that could only be matched by an earthquake and he nearly deafened all those around him. Sarutobi and Hitomi winced while Hinata covered her ears and screwed up her face. Sarutobi and Hitomi wouldn't have even been able to see the trail of colour that indicated Naruto had moved if it wasn't for their advanced skills. Naruto had practically teleported across the front yard and through the open door in a blink of an eye.

As soon as Naruto burst through the front door he instantly began exploring and analysing the place to the smallest degree as he speed through each room. The apartment was simple enough. The kitchen/dining/lounge room was the main room with which the front door opened into, and it also had a small hallway which had one door on each side then one at the end. The door on the left led into a small bathroom with a toilet, bath, shower and sink, and the door on the right was an empty room with lots of space for storing stuff or turning it into a bedroom. Naruto didn't really know what he could put in their but his childish mind didn't really care that much either, besides he was far to excited to think straight. The door at the end was Naruto's favourite as it led into a rather impressively large room with a big bed and many toy boxes. Naruto was almost brought to tears as he leapt up onto the bed and bounced up and down yipping as loud as he could, he had never had a bed in the orphanage before as he was always made to sleep on the ground and he was incredibly surprised at how soft it was. As he leapt off the bed heading for the toy boxes, Naruto picked up the sounds of footsteps enter his house and speed off in their direction.

Sarutobi had barely entered the door before a small blur slammed hard into his chest knocking him down to the ground. Sarutobi just smiled as the little hanyou hugged him and cried happy tears into his chest while thanking him over and over. "Well I'm glad you liked your surprise Naruto, I assumed you have already spotted the boxes in the bedroom so why don't you take Hinata-chan with you and play for a bit while Hitomi and I make a snack for you both because I'm quite positive that you both are quite hungry after playing in the park." Sarutobi's response was a large rumble that Naruto's stomach made at the mention of food. Hinata stared wide eyes at her friend, wondering how he could possibly still be hungry after all the ramen he ate. She was never able to figure it out by the time Naruto bounded up to her, insisting that she come with him and see his new house. The two children had barely left the room before Hitomi and Sarutobi moved to the freshly stocked fridge to retrieve something for the children to eat.

Hinata was smiling brightly as she was led around her friend's new house, she was use to Hyuga standards as far as decorations go but still loved his house none the less. She was quite surprised however when he led her into his room, it was filling with many toy boxes, each labelled with their contents. Living in the Hyuga compound meant that only certain toys could be purchased for the children and seeing such a vast array of new objects that she had never seen before immediately caught her attention and so she was more then happy when Naruto asked if she wanted to play with him and also allowed her to pick the box to open first. After getting over her initial nervousness of being given the option of choosing, she led Naruto to a box labelled 'Plush toys'.

Hitomi and Sarutobi were busy in Naruto's kitchen making a few rice balls for the children and listening to the constant laughing, yipping and other such happy noises coming from Naruto's bedroom. Hitomi thought it quite weird that the Hokage himself was helping her make rice balls for two children, but she just passed it off as a 'grandfather' thing. After all it was common knowledge that Sarutobi had considered Minato almost like a grandson, so it was quite understandable that he would feel the same about Naruto.

After they had finished making lunch Hitomi called to Naruto and Hinata that lunch was made, well a second lunch considering that they had already gone to Ichiraku's. Naruto, hearing that the food was finished, quickly speed out of his room towards the kitchen while slowly followed by Hinata. Upon arriving at the kitchen Naruto quickly dug into the prepared food and easily devoured the rice balls made for him. Hitomi and Sarutobi watched in morbid fascination as the five year old practically inhaled his lunch, while Hinata delicately ate hers. However, Naruto stopped eating his lunch when he felt a familiar churn in his stomach and lower back and his face screwed up to show his discomfort.

"Naruto-kun what's wrong? You look a little sick." Hitomi asked with care, she had seen his sudden change and was wondering if he had perhaps eaten too fast. She watched his face tighten a few more times and even saw beads of sweat begin to form on his brow, her worrying at that increased exponentially.

"Urr… I just have a weird feeling in my stomach… I've been having it for a while now… but this feels a little different." Sarutobi lifted his head at this. He knew that Naruto didn't get sick and if he was feeling something weird about his stomach then might it have something to do with the fox or the seal? Yugao had reported to him that he seemed to rub his stomach in discomfort frequently while she took care of them but at the time he thought nothing of it. Hitomi and Sarutobi both watched in worry as Naruto continued to eat his lunch while periodically shifting in his seat because of his obvious discomfort. It wasn't long until Naruto's breathing slowly started to deepen and become noteably more drawn out. All the while sweat was slowly beginning to form on his brow. Sarutobi was really beginning to become concerned as to what was causing these odd fevor related symptoms and was about to stand and check on the little hanyou when he was stopped by the look in Naruto's eyes. They were wide and slightly paled, a slimilar look to when someones gets impaled by a small object. Sarutobi didn't have long to ponder though as Naruto suddenly began to thrash about, screaming while clutching his stomach and lower back, and the air slowly began to feel heavy with the presence of powerful chakra.

His screams echoed throughout the house and Sarutobi, Hitomi and Hinata were instantly at his side. The sudden turn of events were certainly unexpected and Sarutobi had little time to think of what was going on, but the heavy feeling of chakra was a good indication. Lifting Naruto's shirt Sarutobi found that the seal that kept the fox at bay had become visible and was glowing a bright red. Hinata noticed the strange pattern on her friend's stomach but didn't really think to ask as she was way too worried on why Naruto was in pain. After double checking the seal for any damage or wear Sarutobi had found that Naruto's body seemed to be drawing on more and more demonic chakra, which was probably even more concerning to him.

"Hitomi-san, I need to take him to the hospital! His body is drawing more and more of _its_ chakra!" Sarutobi didn't even wait for a response before he quickly picked up the screaming hanyou and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.


	8. Chapter 7: A new tale of family and frie

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot in this fanfiction.

Chapter 7: A new tale of family and friends

Naruto's senses slowly returned to him as he once again regained consciousness. He could hear voices around him, but he felt way too dizzy to concentrate enough to make out what they were saying. Not fully remembering what happen to place him in such a state, he began to panic slightly resulting in his body in shivering for a second. A motion which the people around him must have noticed.

"Naruto-kun, you are awake!" Came a cheerful and very relieved voice beside where he lay, which based on its comfort was a bed. As Naruto's mind slowly pieced together the words he quickly recognised who the voice belonged to, his best friend. Slowly and slightly painfully Naruto turned his stiff head in the direction of Hinata's voice. Upon opening his eyes and waiting for them to adjust to the onrush of light, Naruto was greeted with the sight of all those who were precious to him. Naruto tried to speak but was quickly silenced by Hitomi.

"No Naruto-kun, do not try to speak yet. Your body is still in shock." Naruto wasn't really sure what was going on and upon seeing his questioning gaze Sarutobi stepped in to try to explain to Naruto what had occurred, much to Hitomi's relief as she didn't really know what to say.

"Naruto-kun, it seems we were a little incorrect about your bloodline. You see, the animal your bloodline based off was not a fox but a kitsune." Naruto mustered enough strength to frown at the old man, even he knew that a kitsune was the exact same as a fox. Sarutobi had expected this assumption and quickly expanded his explanation. "Contrary to what you might think there is a difference between kitsunes and normal foxes, the first being their life span as kitsunes live for thousands of years whereas a normal fox only lives for about eight. Now I'm pretty sure that you won't live that long but you might live longer then normal people. The second is that there are two types of kitsune, those that serve kami and those that go against kami, it is also said that kitsunes are the messagers for him. The third is that kitsunes are naturally able to wield a type of fire called Foxfire and are also capable of creating illusions to either distract or fool their enemies. The fourth but not last is that every hundred years a kitsune grows a new tail as well as becoming slightly stronger, up to the maximum of nine tails… now even though it wasn't a hundred years this is what has happened to you." Sarutobi thought he had put it a little too bluntly but there wasn't many others ways that he could say it, not without revealing too much that is.

Naruto just lay on what he gathered was a hospital bed, judging by the white room he was in, pondering on what the old man had said. For the first minute pretty much everything except the last part made sense and Sarutobi was worried that he had somehow broken him. However that opinion was quickly changed when Naruto finally understood what he meant and leapt to his feet while glancing behind him, startling those around him at his sudden movement. There behind him, where once there was but one tail, now there was two. Naruto blinked three times as his eyes widened in surprise, everyone around him didn't know what his reaction would be, but none of them could have ever imagined the response he did have.

First Naruto moved one tail around, then the other, then the first one again, and then the second again. This process continued for about three minutes with Naruto moving each tail by itself or both at a time in many different ways and directions. Upon concluding his test of their movement Naruto began bouncing on his bed yelling at the top of his little lungs that he now had two tails and how cool that was. In his joy Naruto had failed to realise that he was in the public hospital and in a general ward. Which means, that about twenty other sleeping patients were now awake and quite angry, especially because it was the demon brat who had awoken them.

Hitomi, both worried about the other patients and any damage that Naruto could cause himself from moving so intensely after just waking up, moved forward and did the only thing she knew that would silence him. She picked him up by the scruff of his neck. It worked straight away as Naruto instantly stopping yelling and yipping, however, even though Hitomi had seen Sarutobi lift Naruto up like that she hadn't ever seen his face when he was lifted like that. Until now that is. The skin around Naruto's eyes and mouth was pulled right back making his mouth form a thin cheshire looking grin, while his eyes were pulled thin into diagonal slits. Needless to say Hitomi instantly dropped the boy and almost keeled over from laughing so hard.

Hinata who had also been watching slowly took her mothers example and also began laughing. Naruto just watched both mother and daughter in confusion as to what was so funny. After about twenty seconds though Naruto really wanted to know what was so funny, and loudly voiced his question. Much to the annoyance of the other patients.

After Hitomi and Hinata had recovered from their outburst of laughter Hitomi proceeded to explain Naruto's face to him while Hinata blushed a bright red from embarrassment when she noticed that all the other people in the ward were staring at them. All the while Sarutobi was viewing the whole scene with mild amusement clearly written on his face, although it was also clear that he was thinking of a few other things at the same time. It wasn't until Naruto voiced another question that he started fully paying attention though.

"Um… so how long was I sleeping?" It was a fair question considering that last time he had awaken up in a hospital he had been in a coma for a full week. However this time it was only for two days, but upon hearing it Naruto seemed more disappointed then anything. "So… that means its Sunday? So I can't visit everyone at the Hyuga compound can I?" Sarutobi and Hitomi knew that he would ask about that but didn't think it would be his second question, but when they thought it over, it should have been obvious to them.

"Yes that is correct Naruto-kun you can't visit." The disheartened stance he took at hearing this clearly showed Hitomi just how disappointed he was and quickly thought up a solution that would work for both of them. "Well Naruto-kun… I have a few important tasks at the Hyuga compound and won't be able to see you much at all today, _but_ if you want I could arrange Tohru-chan to take you and Hinata-chan back to the park today." It was kind of pointless saying 'if you want' as she already knew that he would jump at the chance. Almost as if on queue Naruto's ears perked up and instead of the usual one, two tails began waiving excitably.

"OF COURSE I WOULD THAT WOULD BE THE BEST!" This earnt him some smiles from his friends and some glares and some 'shut up demon's from those villagers in the ward. Although, their words and hateful glares were affecting him less and less because to Naruto, no matter what they do or say, his life with his friends was perfect now because of them. Naruto then gave a big smile before bouncing off the bed and landing on the floor. His muscles were still slightly stiff, but that was nothing that wouldn't be fixed in a few minutes.

"Come on Naruto-kun, I shall take you back to the Hyuga compound with me and you can just wait out the front gate until I get Tohru-chan, ok?" Hitomi was still surprised at how fast he had recovered from being motionless for two days but she just assumed that she once again underestimated his healing powers. Naruto quickly nodded his agreement before leaping at his old man and saying his goodbye and once again thanking him for the new house and toys.

Sarutobi just smiled and hugged the little hanyou that had leapt into his arms. "Your welcome Naruto-kun, it was the least I could do for you after everything that has happened." Sarutobi placed Naruto on the ground and watched with a smile as he ran over to Hinata and Hitomi "Now you play nice at the park Naruto-kun, I don't want any more reports of you threatening people because they were picking on your friends." Naruto just nodded his head with a smile while he walked out of the ward holding Hitomi by one hand and Hinata by the other.

It had been a pretty uneventful walk back to the Hyuga compound, well if you exclude the part where Naruto was almost attacked again then everything went fine. It wasn't long before Naruto could see the massive gates of the Hyuga compound fast approach, he was simply amazed at their sheer size. Sure he had passed out of them when he first left the Hyuga compound but he hadn't been taking much notice then. When they stood directly in front of the gates Hitomi released his hand and bent down before giving him and Hinata and hug and a kiss on the forehead before quickly saying goodbye and heading inside.

After waiting for not even five minutes Naruto was already bored and decided to occupy himself by climbing a nearby tree. He asked Hinata is she wanted to climb to but for some reason she seemed a little more nervous then last time and declined. Instead she just decided to sit patiently at the base of the tree and watch Naruto bound from one branch to the other, giggling every now and again when he would slip and fall onto another branch. Naruto may have been having fun playing in the trees but he was also testing himself, he was trying to get use to having two tails and was trying to use both of them to his advantage.

After about half an hour of swinging and climbing in the trees, Naruto abruptly stopped and proceeded to sniff the air catching on to two familiar scents. Continually sniffing and listening carefully, Naruto was able to pinpoint exactly where they were and just how long it would take for them to reach him.

Tohru was thrilled when her best friend had come to her asking if she could take Naruto and Hinata to the park. Of course she would look after them, even though it had only been two days since she last saw him, it felt like a lot longer to her. Even though she had only known Naruto for a few hours he had defended her from a lot of punishment that the Elder would have dealt her and she certainly owed him for that, but besides that she found his friendly personality and his cute bloodline a wonderful change from the boring Hyuga complex.

However, she wasn't too sure on why her best friend had insisted on also taking Neji along. Sure she had nothing against the boy, she just didn't see a point in taking him along as she knew he wouldn't join in on the fun, he would just stand their and watch. She just couldn't understand his strange obsession he had with his duty as Hinata's guardian, heck she didn't even know if Neji even liked his cousin or not because he barely ever spoke to her or about her. If he ever did say anything about her it was always the same 'it is my duty to protect Hinata-sama' line over and over again. Tohru just continued walking while shacking her head thinking on how boring Neji was for a child, and it wasn't long before she reached the gates that led out of the Hyuga complex and spied little Hinata sitting at the base of a tree by herself. She gave the little girl a wave which was shyly returned, however she grew slightly curious and worried why she couldn't see Naruto with her.

Naruto had been tracking Tohru's and Neji's movements ever since he could first smell and hear them. Upon finally being able to see them Naruto's grin increased as he crouched low to the branch while flattening out his ears and tails, imitating a predator preparing to pounce on its prey. Waiting patiently for the right moment Naruto carefully calculated how much effort to put into his jump and aimed himself before launching into the air. Naruto watched with glee as he sped downwards to Tohru, but just inches before he reached her she quickly spun around and caught him. Tohru had activated her Byakugan the instant she couldn't see Naruto with Hinata and had spied him trying to pounce on her. She just held the disappointed little hanyou with one hand before bringing him in and embracing him.

"Hello Naruto-kun, trying to catch me off guard?" Tohru giggled as Naruto returned her hug with a smile. Ever since Hitomi had first given him a hug when he had first awoken in the Hyuga hospital he took ever chance he could to both give and receive one, they were incredibly comforting for him.

"Hey Tohru-chan… and yer I was trying to scare you… But I thought it would have worked. You cheated by using your Byakugan!" Tohru simply smiled at the now pouting hanyou and explained that he was using his bloodline to track and watch her so it was only fair that she could use hers. After waiting for his acceptance of that fact, she lifted him by his armpits to put him down, but stopped mid way when she spotted something that shocked her.

"N-NARUTO-KUN! YOU… YOU HAVE TWO TAILS!" Naruto found it difficult to answer her as he was too busy covering his ears and wincing at her incredible pitch at which she had screamed. Not only was her shocked voice at least 170 decibels but Naruto's enhanced hearing amplified that by at least a hundred times, disorientating him and nearly deafening him. Still holding him by his armpits she looked at the dizzy look on his face and realised that she must have been too loud and quickly apologised.

As soon as the world around him stopped spinning and he was able to see if he was upside down or not, Naruto accepted her apology before quickly and excitably explaining that his bloodline had taken on the attributes of a kitsune not a fox and that one of the differences is that they get more and more tails as they grow older. Naruto pointed at his two tails that had now wound themselves around Tohru's arms. Tohru didn't really know what to say, he seemed so happy about having two tails but Tohru knew that it would only give the villagers more reason to hate him, but if he liked them and didn't care what the horrible villagers would think then she liked them too. Well even if he didn't like them she still would, at least with two tails he looked even cuter. She was about to place him back on the ground when she remembered something.

"Oh, Naruto-kun! I never properly thanked you for what you did the other day." She lifted him slightly higher and brought his head towards her. Naruto had no idea what she was going to do and it had him slightly worried. All that vanished however when he felt two warms lips on his forehead. They felt nice, both warm and caring, and Naruto soon found his face getting warmer and warmer, whether it was from the small kiss on the forehead or from his own slight embarrassment he didn't care. The warmth from his forehead quickly spread throughout his body, like a warm blanket on a cold night or a hug from a mother it reached into his very soul and Naruto found himself on the verge of tears from the huge comfort it granted him.

Tohru pulled her lips off the little hanyou's forehead and moved him back a bit with her arms before once again pulling him close and hugging him. As she held him she spoke some words to him that would have more affect on him then almost everything he had ever heard in his young life. "You know Naruto-kun, I lost my parents at a young age and I never had any other direct family, Hitomi-nee-chan is the closest person I have to a sister, but you know what?" Naruto didn't know what, so of course shook his head. "I've always wanted a little brother, even when my parents were alive I desperately wanted a one. When they died, that dream of having a little brother was shattered and I thought it was impossible, that is until now. Do you know what I'm saying now Naruto-kun?" Naruto sat in Tohru's arms for a little bit, thinking over what she said, it kind of made sense but he still had no idea where she was going with this so he shook his head again. Tohru just giggled at his density before asking him straight up. "Naruto-kun, I don't want just any brother anymore. I want _you_ to be my little brother."

Tohru smiled as Naruto's face froze, she could practically hear his brain ticking trying to process the idea. One minute passed and nothing happened. Two minutes passed and still no movement. Tohru waited for almost five minutes, worried that she might have broken him. Naruto didn't know what to think, he couldn't think, his brain had virtually shut down. It took him almost five minutes to sort his thoughts out until a clear bell rang in his head.. _'She… she wants me to be her… little brother?'_ As soon as the thought had finally settled in Naruto dove forward out of Tohru's hold, knocking her into the ground and almost winding her. Naruto could barely contain his excitement as he hugged and pulled himself close to her, all the while wrapping his two tails around her tightly and saying 'yes I do want to be your little brother' over and over again. He was careful not to scratch her with his ever sharp claws however.

Hinata watched shyly from under the tree with happy tears streaming down her face at the beautiful scene before her. Now Naruto had her as a best friend and Tohru as a sister and it made Hinata very happy to see her friend happy. Neji just watched in confusion, wondering on why Tohru doesn't ever follow her duties as a Hyuga, not only does she frequently and openly disobey the main branch but she also always choses not to follow the Hyuga dress standard. Choosing to dress in bright colours like her current pink and orange flower print kimono instead of the expected white. Everyone knows that a Branch members duty is to obey every command of the main house, but Neji was also given the duty of protecting Hinata, a duty he took _very _seriously. But Tohru never followed her given duties and was now willing to form a blood bond with someone outside the clan. It wasn't that he disliked Naruto, quite the contrary after what he did for Tohru, it was just that he was worried that the Hyuga elders would punish her for not following her duties.

As Naruto slowly released his newly named 'Big Sister' he sat up upon her stomach happily waving his two tails around while thanking her with tears in his eyes. She was about to reply when she saw his eyes turn curious and he moved closer sniffing the air around her and her cloths. She wondered what sort of scent he had picked up and didn't have to wait long, if only she had known on how powerful his sense of smell was before hand however.

"Um… Tohru-nee-chan you… you have someone else's smell on you… it… it smells like the scent of a boy…" If anything Naruto was more confused then curious, he just couldn't understand why Tohru would smell like a boy. Tohru however went bright red, realising that Naruto had picked up on _his _scent. She tried desperately to think of some excuse but Naruto's brain clicked slightly faster, or his mouth spoke first, whichever fits.

"Do you have a boyfriend Tohru-nee-chan?" Naruto asked his big sister excitably. Tohru's face just increased its already predominant blush, even a five year old child could already tell that she was dating someone. She was hoping to keep it from everyone she knew for a while to see how things went, but when she thought about it she couldn't keep secrets from her little brother. Thinking of that fact seemed to calm her a little and her embarrassment of getting caught by a five year old lessened.

"Y-Yes I have a boyfriend Naruto, h-hes… hes one of the boys that you heard saying those things about me the other day." Tohru replied with a slight stutter, it usually wasn't her thing to stutter as she was always out there and extroverted but she just was very new to the whole dating thing and it made her nervous. Her answer however struck the wrong train of thought for Naruto.

"Oh… So he likes your hooters too?" Naruto asked innocently, while Tohru almost chocked on her own blush. Even Neji gave a small snicker, he may have been only six years old but he had once heard those boys Tohru and Naruto were talking about discussion hooters and got a good understanding of what they were and understood that for Tohru such a comment would have been extremely embarrassing, especially after he had heard what happened last time. Naruto however thought that he must have been squishing his big sister to make her go so red in the face, and quickly hoped off her. He then wrapped a tail under her head and asked if she was alright.

It took a good five minutes for Tohru to recover from such an embarrassing comment and stood up so she could explain to Naruto that he shouldn't say that word as it is a rude word. Naruto didn't know why she got so upset about such a word but quickly agreed not to speak it as he didn't want to upset her any more. Tohru then proceeded to explain to Naruto that one of the boys in the group that had said those rude things about her came to her while she was in the hospital and apologised profusely for his friends bad behaviour and gave her his word that he did not go along with them and their disrespectful jokes. He then offered his apology in a form of a private dinner between them to show her his sincerity.

"And what do you say?… I'm not sure if I understand correctly but it sounded as if he asked you out nee-chan." Tohru nodded her head in agreement at the little hanyou's statement and question. She was quite shocked that he could pick up on such a thing at such a young age, but living your life as an orphan on the streets usually prompts one's brain to work harder then usual to ensure survival.

"Well at first I was very shocked and maybe a little bit angry because I thought he might have been just playing with me. But I accepted none the less and found out that he was sincere in his apology and also what a great guy he was. From that night we have been 'unofficial' together, but I don't what anyone to know about this yet ok? I want to see how we are together before I announced it." She said glancing around at the three children that surrounded her. Neji nodded but didn't really care, it was his duty to serve the main branch and if they asked him he would tell them the truth, not that he could guess on why the main branch would ever care enough to ask. Hinata also nodded her head, she understood that this was a promise to keep something important secret but she didn't really understand the idea of 'boyfriend'. Naruto also didn't fully understand the idea of 'boyfriend/girlfriend' but understood it was a pairing of two people who really like each other who hold hands and kiss and get married and have kids, a _very_ basic understanding yes, but an understanding none the less.

Speaking of Naruto, he was the one Tohru was worried about. His happy mood had suddenly left him and instead of his tails moving calmly they shifted quickly in many different angles. His eyes were also cold and calculating, eyes that Tohru didn't ever want to see on such a wonderful child, she felt faint under his stare but also felt that he wasn't even focusing whatever had upset him at her. They were slightly dulled in colour and the bright sparks that constantly seemed to fly around in his eyes had left, leaving nothing but emotionless blurs that pierced the very soul. They looked old and experienced, like that of an experienced ninja that had seen many a bloody battle and could kill without remorse. Hinata also feel the coldness emanating from her friend and gave a small shiver in slight fright.

"Nee-chan… If he hurts you in any way, he will be sorry." Tohru was shocked at this, it more then anything sounded like a threat to her boyfriend and also way about his years in wording. For just a split second she could have swore she saw his fathers image reflected in his deep blue eyes, it did sound like something Minato would have said but she didn't really know him that well to tell for sure. When she actually thought about it though, it was probably just his way of saying he would protect her. To test that theory, she smiled at him and said that there wouldn't be any need to as he was a very kind and considerate guy.

Naruto's stance relaxed at this and his tails returned to their regular movement while his eyes returned to normal and regained their sparks. He didn't want anyone hurting his nee-chan and he would make sure they didn't, because if he didn't protect her then in his mind that that would make him a terrible little brother. Tohru mentally smiled to herself, so she was right, he wasn't threatening her boyfriend he was just worried and concerned for her. Although she wasn't even sure why she needed to check, he had practically risked his life to defend her from that elder so why wouldn't he worry about her. She smiled outwardly now and walked over to him and rubbed his ears and thanked him for being such a good little brother. It wasn't long before Naruto started to make a familiar sound in the back of his throat from the attention his ears were receiving, it was so relaxing and calming to have his ears rubbed or stroked and he found himself almost drifting to sleep from the peace it seemed to grant his mind.

Tohru smiled at her little brother as he made a peaceful growling noise as she continued to rub his ears. She had learnt from Hitomi a few things about him that morning such as his sensitive whisker marks, his sensitive ears, his newfound love for ramen and to calm him down or stop him from doing anything you just simply pick him up by the scruff of his neck. The last one Tohru found quite humorous but she did see its usefulness. Removing her hand from Naruto's head, much to his dismay, she grabbed both him and Hinata by their hands and said that they better hurry to the park or it will be too late and too hot to play. With that said she walked the two children towards Konoha Park, with Neji following close behind.

Down one of Konoha's many side alleys walked a small girl with blond hair and bright blue eyes. She walked slowly as her mind jumbled many thoughts that still kept her confused, upset and scarred. It had been almost two weeks since Ino had seen her mother beat and order for Naruto's death and it still hurt her little heart when she recalled his screams. They were screams of absolute pain and suffering, screams that should never be heard from anyone let alone a boy her own age. She couldn't believe what her mother had done, she was hurting him without care or remorse and seemed to enjoy his pain, Ino shuddered as she recalled the look of absolute hatred on her mothers face. Nothing made sense, how could her mother, the kind and caring person she had always known her to be, be so cruel and heartless towards Naruto. She clutched her chest from pain as she once again recalled the memories that occurred that night, and of what her mother had told her.

Flashback

_Ino had cried herself to sleep in her mothers arms as she was rushed home after witnessing her mother brutally beat her new friend several times and then ordered that three other ninja kill him. She had fallen asleep with the same question still in her mind 'Why?'. She woke up the next morning with a start, shaking and covered in cold sweat, as she quickly took in her surrounding she realised that she was in her own room, a room filled with everything purple ranging from wallpaper to stuffed teddies to her bed. Wiping the sweat from her face with a night towel next to her bed, she tried to recalled what had made her panic so much. At first everything was black and she wondered if it was all just a horrible nightmare that she couldn't remember. That is until she recalled one word that brought the whole memory back._

"_Naruto!" Ino gasped while jumping out of bed. She didn't even have enough time to run out of her room before the memory fully hit her, causing the little girl to break down in tears once again. "Was… was it all just a dream… or was it… did mum really…" Ino's thoughts were drowned out by her own confusion and fear that it might not have been a dream. Picking herself up off the floor she hurried out of her room and down the stairs, intent on finding if it was a nightmare or not. All the while tears still streaming down her little face. _

_Upon bursting into the family kitchen, all she saw was her mother and father eating breakfast while casually talking. She was warmly greeted by both of them, and her mother didn't seem any different to normal. 'Maybe… Maybe it was just a dream…' Ino thought to herself as she slowly walked towards her parents. _

_Inoichi was the first to notice that something was off with his daughter, and upon seeing her still crying face he rushed to her side and pulled her into a hug while asking why she was crying. Ino looked up to her fathers face and then her mothers and saw the same expression on both of them, concern for her. She was in a way wishing that her mother didn't show any other expression because now that means it was all a dream… doesn't it? Ino was so confused and as she hugged her father back she whimpered out slightly that she had a horrible dream. Inoichi, realising that this dream must have been very terrifying indeed to cause such a reaction in his daughter, picked her up and sat down at the table with her still in his embrace._

"_Well, what was it about and why was it so horrible, my little one?" Inoichi asked his daughter once she had calmed down a little. However Ino's mother, fearing that she might be caught, decided to interrupt the conversation and prevent it from going any further. _

"_Inoichi-kun, I don't believe that we should make her recount it. If it was so horrible that it caused her to cry like this then I don't think it would be good for her to remember it again." Inoichi nodded to his wife in recognition for the advice and just continued to hold his daughter until her tears ebbed away. However, instead of Ino returning to her normal self, she just seemed to get more and more upset. Even though she was no longer crying Inoichi could still tell that she was upset because she was shaking. And then he heard her ask him a question he would never have expected from her._

"_D-Dad… Do you know a boy called Naruto?" Inoichi's eyes widened visibly at the mention of that name. He didn't really hate the boy but didn't really know him well enough to actually make a proper judgement of him either. The last he had heard, the little hanyou was living in an orphanage and was every now and again taken on a walk by the hokage, but that wouldn't explain how his daughter knew about him. He cast a quick glance at his wife, but she innocently shook her head, showing that it wasn't her who told Ino. "Ino-chan, where did you hear that name?" Inoichi's voice was serious but also curious as to his daughter's response. It took Ino a little while to put into words what she wanted to say but Inoichi waited patiently._

"_I… I met him in my dream. He was really funny, he had fox ears and a tail and claws too… but… but he accidentally scratched me when we were playing tag but then… but then…" Ino's tears slowly filled her eyes as she recalled her mother beating the boy and she took a quick glance at her mother before fully bursting out once again, crying her heart out into her father's chest. Ino's mother was getting very nervous about being found out and tried desperately to think of something to say to end the conversation, she couldn't very well physically shut her daughter up as that would expose her. She had hoped that the jutsu she used last night would have erased her daughter's memory of that night but it seems that she wasn't as talented as her husband. And unluckily for her, Ino had gathered her courage before she could think of something to cover it up. _

"_But then I saw mum scream at him to get away from me… then… then she hit him and she got three other men to help her hurt him and… s-stab him! And then she order that they… that they kill him! I… I saw a man burn him with a jutsu! Before mum carried me away, it was so horrible daddy." That was it for Ino, if it was considered that she was crying before that had nothing on the wail that she released now. Inoichi could think of nothing else he could do for his daughter but hold her as she cried and screamed into his chest. He didn't exactly pick up on it straight away, but Inoichi being a master of mind manipulation jutsu could tell that something was not right. Sure dreams could cause a person huge emotional strain and could easily affect their mind, but in all his life he had never seen such damage, such horror even on a child, from one nightmare. He turned to look his wife in the eyes, hoping and praying that something like that couldn't possibly be true, but in doing so he also bumped Ino's arm causing her to yell in pain._

_Ino didn't properly register the pain just above her elbow where her father had bumped until after a certain thought came to her mind. 'That… that is where Naruto scratched me!' Ino's mind couldn't fully process any thought as she instinctively rolled up the sleeve of her nightgown, showing a thin but deep cut above her elbow that had started to slowly bleed again from being disturbed. Ino and her mother let out a collective gasp and Inoichi gazed at the cut worryingly, he didn't however, grasp the full implications of such a cut. His wife and Ino did. _

_Ino stared up at her mother and her body began to shake uncontrollably as all manner of thoughts processes through her little five year old mind. "Y-Y-Y-You did… You did hurt him… p-please… tell me it was a dream… a dream! JUST A DREAM!" Ino yelled before promptly fainting from shock of the realisation that her mother, the one she had always thought to be the kindest and loving person in the world, __**did**__ hurt Naruto and order for his death._

_Inoichi looked down to his cherished daughter as she lay motionless on his lap, he had no idea what to say or do. Even his fully developed adult brain could not properly understand what was going on or what his daughter was trying to explain to them and seemingly to herself. So he did the only thing he could think of, he used a jutsu that allowed him to enter his daughter's mind, and find out for himself what had her so horrified and upset. As he felt his spirit slowly pull out of his body, he felt his senses slowly fade. But not before he saw his wife jump for him with tear filled eyes, telling him to stop._

_Inoichi awoke in an endless plain of purple and blue flowers, his nose was struck by an onrush of smells both from Ino's flower field and perfumes. It was nice to know that his daughter had such a well built mind but he did not come here to see her sanity but rather the odd 'nightmare' that had caused her to almost go catatonic while on his lap. As he walked through the field he noticed many small ponds littering the field of flowers. Each sparkiling blue puddle contained a reflection of wonderful memories that Ino cherished, most brought a smile to his face as he too recalled the happy memories. But some, like Ino's memory of stealing some cookies out of the cookie jar just made him laugh._

_He had absolutely no idea which way to head, as Ino's mind being a plain of flowers, was endless. He did however, follow a feeling he had within his gut, it was almost like he was being led towards a certain location, pulled by some weird emotion. It wasn't long before he came to a dark, dimly lit cave. 'So this would be where all her horrible memories are sealed away. I wonder if I will find a memory of the nightmare here…?" he though to himself as he slowly approached the cave and peered inside._

_The cave's mouth just opened up to about fifteen different pathways all of which obviously led to bad memories. Glancing over them, Inoichi didn't seem all that interested in any of them. That is, until his gaze stopped at the last of the fifteen tunnels. This one interested him immensely but at the same time concerned him, mainly because unlike all the other passageways, this one's entrance was covered and blocked by what appeared to be spider webs._

_Walking inside the cave and towards the passageway, Inoichi began to feel the tell tale signs of chakra emanating from the web like material covering the entrance. It didn't take him long to realise that someone or something had used a jutsu on his daughter to try and block away whatever memories were sealed down that passageway. Luckily for him, whoever had attempted the jutsu wasn't very proficient at it, and he was able to dispel the jutsu by simply touching the web and pulsing out a bit of chakra. As the jutsu started to waver and finally disappear, Inoichi felt an onrush of warm air and could see a red glow slowly pulsing at the end of the passageway. Confident that this was where the memory of the nightmare lay, Inoichi stepped forward towards the glow._

_Back in reality Ino's mother was crying in desperation while holding onto her husband, trying to think of someway that she could get out of this alive. She was going to get caught, caught breaking the Hokage's law which, if broken warrants execution. She didn't want to die, she was too young and her husband and daughter still needed her. She just prayed that her husband would understand and wouldn't report her. 'It's all that demon's fault! If he was just killed the night he was born then none of this would have happen!' She raged to herself. That was how most of the villagers thought, even if they were beating him to a pulp it was still his fault, because in their minds if he was still alive then he is still to blame for everything. _

_She was cut from her thoughts however, when she felt her husband stir. She quickly released him however when she saw the ghostly pale look on his face. Inoichi had been ripped out of his daughter's mind by his own loss of concentration caused by his shock at witnessing his wife brutally beat and mutilate the young hanyou through his daughter's eyes. He could only image what Ino must have thought, seeing that at such a young age would definitely leave some sort of emotional scar. Heck that had been more then enough to make him sick, speaking of which. Inoichi could only think straight long enough to pull away from whatever held him before his stomach emptied itself onto the kitchen floor. _

"_Are you alright Inoichi-kun?" Ino's mother asked with concern while reaching for her husband. Before the hand even made contact with his shoulder however, his hand raised and slapped hers away from him. She pulled away hastily in shock, he had never done anything like that before and it worried her for a second that he might not listen to her and choose to report her after all, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of losing her husband or daughter. As she saw her husband turn to her, she saw that his tears easily outmatched her own. _

_Inoichi stared at his wife for what seemed like eternity as he tried to make sense of his thoughts about what she had done. The beautiful, kind, generous woman he had married and loved was standing before him, and yet he saw her differently then he did only a few moments ago. There was something different about the way she stood almost like she was contemplating running, there was something different about her body as it seemed to be trembling in either worry or anticipation and there was also something different about her eyes, deep within in them they held something Inoichi couldn't identify but he was certain that he didn't like it. After about five minutes of silence, all he could piece together were three words._

"_How…could you?" His words weren't accusing, they were confused. Inoichi couldn't fathom how his wife could harbour such hatred towards one little boy, a boy that kept them safe every day of his existence and in thanks was cursed for eternity to live as a hanyou. Ino's mother could tell by his words that Inoichi wasn't going to side with her, but she would be damned before she let that little demon cause any havoc among her family._

"_What do you mean 'How could I'? He's a demon Inoichi-kun and he hurt Ino-chan. He-" Inoichi cut her off before she could continue any further._

"_No… It is true that he hurt Ino-chan… but he didn't do it on purpose… you… you should have seen the look in his eyes when he realised he hurt her… such pain… There is no way such a child could be the fox." Inoichi's voice was slightly off and he was breathing heavily, the memory obviously drained him both emotionally and physically. He had seen everything that his daughter had, felt her feelings of confusion, horror and hurt when his wife had attacked Naruto. He also saw the incalculable rage within his wife's eyes, and also the small glint that shone in them when she hurt him, she had enjoyed Naruto's pain. His wife didn't quite agree with him however and instantly rebuked his argument._

"_It's all just an act Inoichi-kun! The demon's just waiting until we are all unprepared then it will attack us and this time kill us all!" Inoichi listened to his wife's words and almost laughed. Could she even think logically about this or was she too consumed by her hatred?_

"_Are you listening to yourself woman… why would 'the great and all powerful Nine-Tailed Fox' even bother to wait? If it could either control Naruto or escape it would have by now and already killed us. How can you not see that that boy keeps the demon at bay." Ino's mother was about to rebuke her husbands argument again until she noticed her daughter began to stir. Inoichi noticed this as well and was instantly by his daughters side, holding her close as she awoke in tears. _

_As soon as Ino awoke in her father's hold the memories returned and her tears once again increased. Inoichi quickly pulled her even closer and whispered soothing words into her ears, he was expecting some sort of question from her and wasn't surprised when she was only able to utter a simple "Why?". Inoichi looked down into his daughters eyes, wishing for a way to explain the situation to her, he didn't get that chance however as his wife choose this point to interrupt. _

"_I did it dear daughter because he is a demon!" You could practically see the poison dripping off her words as they left her mouth, Ino just sat in her father's arms as confused as before. She had heard her mother call him that quite a few times when she was beating him but she didn't know why, so again she let a small 'Why?' leave her lips. Inoichi then shot his wife a cold look, reminding her that she was not to say any more. But it seemed that she either didn't see his glare or chose to ignore it, because her grin just increased before explaining to her daughter exactly why. "He is a demon because the Nine Tailed Fox was never killed but sealed into him! And now he is the fox! HE'S THE NINE TAILED FOX REBORN!... ARGGGHHHH!" That was as far as she got before her husband silenced her with a jutsu that sends its target into a temporary coma, as she fell Inoichi caught her body and laid her down carefully on the kitchen floor and cried over her. Regardless of what she thought of Naruto he did still love her, but now she had broken the Hokage's laws twice and the penalty for such a deed was execution. _

_Ino could barely hold her herself together enough to remain conscious again let alone figure out the weird words her mother had spoken. 'What did mother mean… it doesn't make any sense.' In her confusion her tears fell even harder and she was soon embraced by her father, who she snuggled into for support and cried her little heart out into his chest as he cried for both her and his wife. He only hoped that this incident hadn't scarred her little mind too heavily and he prayed that his wife's words did not corrupt his daughter as they had done to her._

Flashback End

'_He is a demon because the Nine Tailed Fox was never killed but sealed into him! And now he is the fox! HE'S THE NINE TAILED FOX REBORN!' _This was the sentence that had been haunting her thoughts almost as much as the memory itself, how could her mother say such a thing? It didn't make any sense. From what she had heard the Nine Tailed Fox was killed by the Fourth Hokage who sacrificed his life to stop the beast and Naruto just had a cool bloodline that made him look like a fox, so why would her mother say such a horrible thing?

She continued walking down random alleyways and eventually found herself walking through Konoha Park, not that she noticed however as she was still deep within her own thoughts. Her father had told her that her mother was wrong and that she was in very big trouble with the Hokage for attacking and killing a child. That was one thing that upset Ino immensely, because by the way her father had said it, it sounded like her mother might have to go to jail or worse and she certainly didn't want that to happed because despite how much her mother had hurt her by killing Naruto she still loved her. That was another thing that was on Ino's little mind, she had seen the way her mother and those three men had beaten Naruto and that amount of punishment would kill even an adult, and yet she could have swore that she saw him walking with two adults and a little girl the other day.

Ino continued to aimlessly walk through the park, trying to make sense of everything when a certain voice made her head instantly spin around and tears to well up in her eyes.


	9. Chapter 8: Returning friends and a hanyo

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Ok, well I have been asked a few questions about my fanfiction, and while usually I don't answer questions that are possible spoilers. I feel that they deserve an answer.

The first answer will be to all those people asking if this story will be a harem. Ok well thats a fair question, and the answer is simple. The answer is No. I am a classic romance writer and being such I would much prefer to write about two people together and not mulitple. No offense to those that like harems, but in the real life, the chance of multiple women romancing the same person at the same time is not high and I also feel like there is more depth and passion in a one-on-one relationship.  
So the simplest way of saying this is it will be Naru/Hina all the way.

The second answer will be to those that inquired whether or not I will have Ino's mother killed. Well guess what? This chapter answers that question.

The third answer will be to those that asked whether or not I actually researched information about Kitsunes or am I just making it up. Well thats a simple answer too. Yes. I researched a great deal about Kitsune's and their behavior and even if many of you don't think I'm staying true to the real legends I shall elaborate on the key things I have included.  
1: Kitsune's grow another tail every 100 years to a maximum of nine, Naruto grows tails at a faster rate because he is only half Kitsune.  
2: Kitsune's are naturally _extremely _protective of those that treat them with kindness which is demonstrated in Naruto's _extreme_ reactions when Tohru had her seal activated and when Hinata was getting bullied.  
3: Kitsune's naturally have an appathy for pranks and illusions, while this is yet to be demonstrated it is not forgotten.  
4: Kitsune's are often seen with illumicent globes that hover at the tips of their tails, because Naruto is only half Kitsune his Fox Fire did not naturally form into a ball. But this little feature will be expanded in latter chapters.  
6: Kitsune's often transform to beautiful men or women to seduce humans, while this won't be used to that extreme it will be used later.  
7: Some Kitsune's are able to posses humans by entering through underneath the human's fingernails, this will be used and exaggerated on later.  
8: Kitsune's often swear to guard and serve in secret a particular family or clan because of something that said clan or family did for it, or in exchange for the glowing ball on the tips of a Kitsune's tail that was stolen. This will be used and expanded on later.

There are many more traits of a Kitsune that will be and already have been added to Naruto's personality but I will not list any more.

The third answer will be to those that are asking whether or not I will publish any of my completed novels. The answer to those people are No. I have suffered a little too much to ever try that again, thanks to someone who use to have my heart. BUT to those that like this fanfiction, I am thinking about writing another one. To those that want the details of it and/or a chance to vote if I should write it or not you will have to wait till next chapter. Hehe, can't have all the good stuff right away.

The last answer is to those that are asking when I will move past the younger years of Naruto and Hinata and into the academy and ninja life. Well thats ones simple, two chapters after the Hidden Cloud's village kidnapping attempt of Hinata will be when the timeskip occurs.

Anyway, I'm sure your all tired of hearing these answers unless you are one of those who asked so on with the latest chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot line in my fanfiction.

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Chapter 8: Returning friends and a hanyou's forgiveness

Naruto was currently bouncing around happily while trying to encourage his best friend and his sister to hurry up so they can get to the park quickly, while at the same time slowing them down because of his curiosity of all the different things he saw along the main road of Konoha, one that he was never able to travel along before. Tohru smiled at her new little brother's antics while Hinata just giggled. Tohru had definitely noticed a change in his whole attitude, he seemed more lively, excited and out there then he was when she first met him. He even didn't seem to mind the horrible glares and words that the villagers would throw his way, she could tell he heard them because his ears would twitch slightly and he would sometimes flinch but it looked like he was just shrugging them off. According to what Hitomi had said to her that morning, this change in his personality was not a change at all however, it was just that he feels safer and more secure then he did before and is just now expression himself as he normally would. In other words, Naruto now considered himself safe enough to be himself around them. Tohru just gave a happy smile as Naruto continued to bound around the place while every now and again walking on all fours and/or sniffing the air. She could see something on his face that she really hadn't seen when they first met, even when she had accepted his offer of friendship he didn't have this expression, on Naruto's face she saw happiness.

To him there was probably nothing more valuable in this whole world then his new friends and big sister and Tohru could easily tell this as plain as the grin on his face. Hinata also saw a difference in her friend, he seemed so much more lively and less afraid of the villagers glares then he was before, and also more funny, if the way he was trying to get unstuck from a dirty old jar he had randomly crawled into was anything to go by. Hinata giggled as she quickly walked over to her best friend and pulled him out of the jar by one of his tails. He gave a small yelp as his head popped out but keeled over in laughter when he was free.

"Hehe, thanks Hinata-chan. I saw something shiny in the jar and had to have a look!" Naruto then proceeded to hold his hand out and display what he had found, Hinata and Tohru looked curiously at the odd looking stones he held in his hand, there were five of them in total. They were bright red and had been carved into a small spiral, it took a while before it clicked in Tohru's mind on where she had seen them before.

"I've seen them before little brother,-" Naruto gave a big grin at having a family name and bounced happily. "-they are the official symbol of Whirlpool village, or at least they were before the village got destroyed. Oh, your mother came from Whirlpool too." As soon as Tohru had said those words she instantly wished she could take them back, she knew that no one was suppose to say anything about his parents, but she was already told by Hitomi that he was told a bit about his mother so she hoped that his reaction wasn't too horrible.

"Really? So um… did you know my mother Tohru-nee-chan?" Tohru only had enough time to shake her head before he responded again. It seemed now that he was actually allowed to be himself he turned out to be quite hyperactive. "You didn't? Oh well… Anyway if they came from Whirlpool country and so did my mum then I will make them my clan symbol! If what Hitomi-san and Hiashi-san told me was true then I'm the Uzumaki clan head which means we need a symbol!" Naruto proclaimed happily while waving his tails excitedly as he looked at the stones.

'_If only he knew that already was his clans symbol… oh well.' _Tohru thought to herself as she watched and listened to her little brother describe in great detail on where he was going to put the symbol and on what piece of clothing. It wasn't until he tugged on her dress that she actually started paying attention however.

"Um… Tohru-nee-chan… here." Naruto said while reaching up and placing one of the red stones into her hand. Before she got a chance to ask him why he was giving her one, he walked over to Hinata and placed one in her hand and did the same thing to Neji. Speaking of Neji, neither Tohru, Naruto or Hinata had even once heard Neji talk to any of them while they walked, heck Tohru had forgotten that Hinata's stonic guardian was even there. He was so quiet and focused on his duties as Hinata's guardian that she could barely believe he was only six years old. All three of them were immensely confused as too why Naruto would given them each one of the stones and it was little Hinata who eventually voiced the question, even if the term 'voiced' didn't really count for her ever so shy whisper.

"Um… N-Naruto-kun, w-why did you give us t-these s-stones?" Naruto in response just turned to his best friend and gave her a huge smile. Hinata had seen her best friend smile on numerous occasions in the little time they had known each other but recently thay have been getting bigger and bigger, clearly showing on how much happier he was getting.

"Well when your dad was talking to me the other day Hinata-chan, he said something about 'because I was clan head it was my job to show my support to those I would want support from'… I didn't really understand what he meant but I think he meant I was supposed to prove that I was going to be loyal to my friends and so I will give you these, because they will be the symbol of the Uzumaki." Even though Naruto was correct when he said he didn't really understand what Hiashi had meant they all knew what was meant… well except Hinata because she was too little. Too her Naruto was just giving her a gift to say he was her friend, which in turn is pretty much what Naruto thought anyway considering he did not get what Hiashi had meant. Tohru just smiled and accepted the stone while Neji just nodded and also pocketed the stone, both of them knew what he was trying to do, even if he himself did not realise, he was trying to say that his clan supported the Hyuga clan.

With that done, Naruto gave a big grin before speeding off in the direction of the park while dragging his best friend by her hand with his tail. Tohru just chuckled before running after her little brother, Neji just followed at his normal pace.

It wasn't long before they all reached the park and Naruto quickly and excitably asked what his best friend wanted to play on first. "Well um… c-could we p-play on the s-swings again. It was f-fun last time." Naruto was more then happy to agree and he quickly ran over and dived on one of the swings. He was hoping that Hinata wanted to play on the swings again because he didn't get a turn last time as Hinata had fallen off and landed on him so they changed to the see-saw. As Naruto sat on the swing waiting for Hinata to push him he noticed that Neji and Tohru were just sitting on one of the nearby benches and he found himself wondering why they were not joining in. His big sister not joining in could be understandable as she was a lot older and probably didn't find it fun, but Neji was a mystery to him. All Neji seemed to want to do was stand near Hinata and 'protect' her, he couldn't fathom why Neji would want to stay so far away if all he wanted to do was protect her. This thought sparked an idea in his mind, and a big foxy grin appeared on his face.

Naruto thoroughly enjoyed himself as Hinata pushed him on the swing, and so did Hinata. At first she couldn't push hard enough to move him and got slightly upset, but when Naruto encouraged her to try again she was amazingly able to move him. Well that's what Naruto made her think, at the last second before she pushed him he pushed off the ground with one of his tails. But as soon as the momentum was there and Hinata's confidence was lifted, it became an easy task. After a few minutes of swinging, Naruto jumped off to allow Hinata to have a go and to set his plan in motion.

"Hey Neji-san, I'm afraid I might push the swing too hard for Hinata-chan and she could fall off. Could you push her just in case? It is your job to make sure she doesn't get hurt." Neji, to his credit, immediately faced them and considered Naruto's statement. Well it was his job and if judging by how strong Naruto was to be able to lift himself and Hinata while hanging onto a tree, he would be needed as Naruto would definitely be to strong. He didn't see any reason to not push his cousin so he got up and slowly began walking towards them, oblivious to Naruto's not so innocent smile.

Hinata wasn't too sure why Naruto would ask her cousin to push her and voiced her curiosity. "Um… N-Naruto-kun, I um… I'm p-pretty sure that you w-won't push to hard. So... So why a-are you getting N-Neji-niisan?" Hinata however was only answered with another big grin from her friend, confusing her even more. She didn't mind too much however, either way she got to play on the swing. And it wasn't long before she was laughing in happiness as her cousin began pushing her. Tohru watched from her chair, interested as to what her little brother was trying to do, she had her suspicions but still wasn't sure. He was only five after all. It wasn't long before she got her answer.

"Your t-turn Neji-niisan!" Hinata said happily as she hopped off the swing and bounding over to her cousin. She shyly tried to pull him towards the swing but he just stood still and shook his head. "B-But… I want you t-to play too nii-san." Another idea popped into Naruto's head at this.

"Um… Neji-san, I thought you said that your duty was to obey the main branch and to protect Hinata-chan. I'm pretty sure she told you it was your turn so you _have_ to have a go, its your duty." Naruto said with a smile. He didn't fully understand the whole main and side branch thing but he had the basic understanding. Hinata gave her friend a surprised look, she never liked ordering anyone around but there was something about his smile that told her he wasn't trying to be mean, if anything it looked like he was trying to trick Neji into playing with them. Neji just simply glared at his cousin's friend, having being reminded of his servitude to the main house was irritating to say the least, but he complied anyway and sat on the swing. Considering on how heavy he was Hinata and Naruto decided to push him together. Tohru just continued watching from the side while giggling at her little brother's ingenuity of using Neji's own obsession with duty to force him to play with them. That was quite a smart tactic for a five year old.

Neji was calmly being swung on the swing finding it boring and a waste of his time when he begun to slowly feel something and a small realization came to him. This was the first time he had done something like this. Every other time his cousin went off to play, he would always just stand back and guard her. He had never actually joined in, but now that he had, even if he was forced to, he thought it kind of fun and wanted a bit more. At this realization, a small smile graced his usual stonic face. Naruto and Hinata being behind him did not see his smile, Tohru however did and her mouth almost hit the floor. For as long as anyone had known him Neji never smiled, he took his job as Hinata's guardian seriously and followed the branch member decorum to the letter. _'Maybe… just maybe Naruto-kun could bring Neji-kun out of his solid shell.'_

Hinata was enjoying this in particular, she had tried since she could first move to get her cousin to play with her but he would always say that his duty was only to protect her. But now in a way he was playing with them. Regardless of the fact it was an order, she could tell that in some way he was having fun. She just hoped that he would soon want to play on his own accord and not just because he was told to. _'I will have to thank Naruto-kun later for trying to get Neji-nii-san to play with us.'_

After a little while on the swing Neji jumped off and bowed to Hinata. Then slowly walked off to allow Naruto and Hinata to play once again, while Naruto performed the next part of his plan. "You can't go yet Neji-san, you have to hop on the flying saucer and make sure Hinata-chan doesn't fall off." Neji froze for a moment and then turned back to face the grinning hanyou and gave him a small glare before walking over to the saucer and waiting for Hinata. Hinata ran over to the saucer excitably and sat down on a seat next to her cousin. Tohru watched slightly concerned as her little brother walked towards them with a slightly mischievous smile plastered on his face and she was worried that he would try to spin them too fast. That was an accurate guess, but not exactly what Naruto was planning.

Neji, to Naruto, seemed way to stiff and he was going to get him to change his boring ways and that's a promise. He started of by spinning them slowly and gradually increased the speed of the saucer, but not too much to scare his friend. Hinata was generally having a good time if her angelic laughter was an indicator and once again Neji graced them with a small smile.

It was an odd feeling for him, almost like this was something he should have done before, like he should still be doing it. He was 'playing' with his cousin and her friend… it had a feeling to it that he usually only identified with his obsession with duty, it felt right to play with them. Although he probably would never admit to it as it was very unseemly for a Hyuga to engage and enjoy such activities. Naruto had been watching Neji's face for a while and even though his facial expression didn't change much, Naruto could tell from the small smile that would appear on his face then vanish again that Neji seemed to be having a fun, even if only a little bit, but didn't want to admit it. To Naruto, Neji had way too much pride in his family… _'Hmm… maybe I could use his pride against him to make him play with us…'_ Naruto's grin broadened at the thought and he promptly stopped the saucer from spinning. Which was much appreciated by the littlest Hyuga as the extra gravity was starting to make her feel sick.

As she slowly hopped off Neji followed her but was promptly stopped when one of Naruto's tails flicked in front of him. "Hey Neji-san I bet I'm stronger then you!" Neji's eye twitched and he turned to face Naruto, an action that didn't go unnoticed by the little hanyou. "Yer I don't think that a Hyuga is as strong as an Uzumaki!" Neji raised an eyebrow and his eyes widened at this as if to say 'Yer right!'. "What? You don't believe me? Then I'll prove it, the first one to fall off the spinning saucer loses!" As Naruto bounced up onto the saucer a small arrogant smirk appeared on Neji's face. There was no way he could possibly lose to someone a full year younger then himself so this would be an easy way to prove his cousin's friend wrong. As soon as both of them had sat down on the saucer and grabbed hold of a poll Naruto called for his sister to push them.

Tohru had been watching and listening intently and was very much amused to see her little brother use Neji's pride of being a Hyuga against him, it seemed that her little brother was developing a trickster side to him. As she walked over to the two children she could very well fell the air around them thickening, Naruto had a goofy grin on his face as if he knew something that Neji didn't and Neji had a hard glare on his face from Naruto saying that an Uzumaki was stronger the him. _'Oh dear… this could very well be the start of a rivalry. Oh well more fun for me!' _Tohru thought as stood next to the saucer, getting ready to spin it fast. "Ok you two! Are you ready, cause I'm going to spin it faster and faster until one of you fall off. That is what you two agreed too right?" After receiving two nods she was just about to start spinning when she felt a small tug on her dress.

"Um… Tohru-san p-please be careful n-not to hurt them… p-please." Hinata was worried about both her friend and cousin. Even if they were both strong enough to hold on for a while, when they do eventually fly off they would probably get hurt. Tohru just smiled at the little girl and promised that they won't get hurt, because even if they did fly off they were surrounded by grass that would cushion their fall. Hinata didn't seem too satisfied with the response but she couldn't really ask for much more, her friend had challenged her cousin and she knew that both Naruto and Neji wouldn't give up until one of them had lost and gone flying.

Tohru started off spinning them slowly but quickly increased when Naruto complained she was going too slowly. It only took a few seconds before the extra gravity started to affect them and in response Neji wrapped himself around a poll while Naruto gripped his tightly and held on to two other polls with a tail each. Neji tried to say that Naruto was cheating by using his tails, but nothing by garbled noises escaped his mouth as Tohru increased the speed she was spinning them at. After about thirty seconds, Naruto and Neji started lifting off the ground and they were being pulled sidewards. Tohru was having a ball watching the two of them, there faces were being sucked backwards and they looked like their bodies were being stretched. Even Hinata, despite her worry that they might get hurt, found the sight funny and gave a small giggle.

Seeing that the two boys were still holding on quite well and still had a defiant look in both of their eyes, Tohru decided to up the notch a bit and begun spinning the saucer as fast as she could. Naruto felt gravity increase what felt like ten-fold and his tails were pulled away from the poles they were holding onto. Fearing that he could at any time lose his grip, he tightened his hands around the poll he was holding, digging his claws into the metal. Neji felt like his face was going to be ripped off, but he refused to lose even something so trivial to his cousin's friend and so used massive quantities of what little chakra his young body had, to increase his grip. After what seemed like forever to the two combatants they both decided to glance up at their opponent to see if they had won, yet they were far from prepared to see what they actually saw however. Naruto saw that Neji's face was being pulled right back and droll was flying out of both sides of his mouth, his hair that had previously been tied up was now loose and looked like he had used five tonnes of hair gel to get it to stick up in a straight cylinder. It also looked like his pants were going to fly off any second. Naruto's face was pretty much the same except that his eyes and mouth were pulled back to look like a cat being picked up by its scruff and his two ears were being blown back like he was being sucked into an air jet. His tails were being stretched out straight and the hair on them blown thin, but the most embarrassing part for Naruto was that unlike Neji, his pants had already blown off. Both of them tried to hold in their laughter, but like many things in life, it was futile. As soon as they both let out even a snicker, their grip on the polls were loosened and gravity took hold of them, sending them flying in opposite directions.

Hinata stared on in horror as her cousin and best friend flew a good twenty meters into the air. Neji slammed hard into a tree knocking the air out of his lunges while Naruto landed head first into the sand box, burying him a good foot into the sand. Hinata didn't know who to help first, but upon seeing Naruto without any pants on, quickly turned away thoroughly grossed out and quickly ran to help her cousin. Tohru would have helped, if she was able to breathe that is. Upon seeing Naruto sticking out of the sand bottom and tails first and Neji completely disorientated causing him to fall into a small mud puddle was all the teenage Hyuga needed to burst out laughing and slowly fall to her knees and eventually the ground from laughing so hard and lack of oxygen.

By the time Hinata had steadied her cousin enough so that he could walk straight, Naruto was busy running around desperately looking for his pants while doing the best he could covering himself up with his tails. As soon as he had located his pants and put them on, he glanced over to Neji who was also glaring in his direction. But a sudden reminder of what each of their faces looked like when they were spinning caused both Naruto and the ever stonic Neji to keel over in laughter. Hinata wasn't sure what to think, here she was worried about any potential injuries her friend or cousin could have and all everyone else was doing was laughing, however, it seemed that the laughter was contagious as it didn't take long before she too joined in.

After a few good minutes of laughter everyone slowly begun to settle down and began nursing their aching sides. Naruto was the first one who recovered enough to speak. "So ur… who won?" The silence that followed was only on par with the glare Neji was shooting at him. It seemed that Neji wasn't too happy about the whole challenge.

"Well Naruto-san, I believe it was a tie. But that doesn't mean that you are on par with me, it was simply a childish game." Naruto was a little confused at this, he could have sworn that Neji had been enjoying himself but for some reason didn't want to admit it.

"You know Neji-san, I really don't understand why you think you can't have fun or play games. You are a kid too, you're just a little older then I am but that doesn't mean you can't play. You say that you have been given the job of protecting Hinata-chan, but they didn't say you couldn't act like a normal kid. It doesn't matter if it is the 'Hyuga way' or not, you are a kid so you should be allowed to play. And besides wouldn't it be easier to protect Hinata-chan if you were playing with her because then you would be closer to her and it would make it easier to defend her." Neji just scoffed at Naruto's words, he really didn't understand how the Hyuga clan was run, but Neji did take notice of the last sentence Naruto said. That at least had some sense in it, if he was playing with his cousin then it would be easier to protect her and for some reason he felt oddly happy when he was forced to have a go on the swing and spinning saucer, almost like he was doing something that he had always wanted to do but always missed out on. But who should he listen to? The elders who had always been seen as the perfect example of what a Hyuga should be or some boy he barely knew and a longing feeling in his stomach.

Hinata could see that her cousin was having conflicting thoughts. She could see in his eyes that he was confused on whether he would follow the natural feelings of a kid or follow what the elders had pounded into his head since he was born and thought that giving him a little push might help him. "Nii-san… do y-you want to p-play some more? We could p-play in the s-sand box if you w-want to?" She was a bit worried at first when here cousin looked at her with his usual blank stare. But all her worries disappeared when Neji gave a slight nod of his head. He wasn't sure if it was the right thing or not but he for some reason really wanted to continue playing with his cousin and Naruto. He wanted the feeling he had when he was on the saucer again, he wanted to have fun. Although that doesn't mean he had to look like an idiot doing so and figured he could easily find a way to seem dignified at the same time.

Almost squealing in joy that for the first time since she knew him her cousin actually wanted to play with her, she grabbed his hand shyly and quickly pulled him towards the sand box where Naruto was already digging a tremendous hole. Tohru, who had now finally recovered from her lack of oxygen, also decided to join in with the children. She didn't care if she was fifteen and regardless of how immature she might sound, she wanted to play too! And this is how it was for the next few hours, the four of them playing, laughing and digging in the sand. Their fun was abruptly ended however when the hairs on Naruto's tails and ears stood on end, quickly followed by a deep growl.

"What is it Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked her friend, he frequently was seen growling or the like but he rarely did so without a good reason. And by his now four legged stance and his tails swirling menacingly Hinata guessed that he was getting defensive about something or their was something nearby that he was getting angry at. She didn't have to wait long for her answer before Naruto took off into the surrounding bushes.

"The bullies back, and he's picking on someone else, another girl by the sounds of it." He spoke in a low tone while still growling. He could have sworn that the girl's voice sounded familiar but he couldn't quite place it and he didn't think much on it as he speed off in the direction that he had heard the voices come from.

Ino sniffed back the tears as she saw him approach and quickly got into a _very_ basic defensive stance. In other words just her hands held out in front ready to clobber him, she really wasn't in the mood to put up with his constant attempts to pick on her. "What are you doing here Butthead! I swear if you're here to try to pick on me again I'm just going to have to hit you!" Ino screeched at the boy she called Butthead. Who in turn just shrugged and kept walking towards her until he was standing right in front of her. He glared down dauntingly but Ino didn't flinch one bit, she was too tough to be intimidated by such a brat even if he was almost twice her size.

"Hey Blond Pig! Hows it been since I last scared off that pink hair crybaby with the huge forehead you call a friend?" the boy asked with a vicious smile. A vain visible appeared on Ino's forehead as she heard both her and her friend insulted in just his 'hello'. Oh how much she wanted to put him in his place right now, but sadly last time she had gotten pretty badly beaten up, but at least she got a damn good one in his balls.

"I should really ask you about your two _friends_!" Ino shot back while leaning closer and staring daggers at him. She may have been only five but she still knew that the best way to hurt a boy was to kick him between the legs. His hand unconsciously moved in front of his crotch, he was still both angry and scared that a five year old could kick him so hard, and in such a direct spot.

They continued their little battle of words until the 'Butthead' went to throw a punch, only to be cut short when he heard a growl behind him. A growl he knew quite well and almost made him soil himself. But the growl was nothing compared to the voice that followed it. "I thought I told you to not pick on _anyone_ anymore." Naruto's voice was harsh and lacked any emotion, not even anger could be detected within his words. It was like a robot's voice, metallic, harsh, pitchless and hollow. It was a sentence with one purpose: to scare the crap out of him.

Turning towards the voice and the growling, Buttheads hands and knees began to shake as his eyes met Naruto's. He had had nightmares about this little boy every night since their last 'conflict' and he really didn't want them to get any worse. Ino's eyes widened to that of dish plates when she saw who had spoken and her mind was sadly not able to cope with the shock of seeing him alive, not after all she had been through, and her mind almost shut down. Naruto did not notice the small blond girl behind the bully, as his only focus right now was getting rid of said bully. He was hoping to scare his horrible habbit of teasing small kids out of him the first time but it seemed that he needed reinforcement. Naruto really didn't want to scare the boy, because that made him seem just as bad if not worse then the boy, but it needed to be done.

However, Naruto didn't even take a full step forward before the bully took off in the opposite direction repeating an innumerable amount of 'I'm sorry I wont do it again's. Naruto was about to chase after the bully when his ears twitched slightly at hearing the voice of the girl the bully had been picking on, a voice that reminded him of a lot of pain.

"Naruto… is… is that you?" Her voice was quiet and nervous and reminded Naruto much of his best friend's. But it also reminded Naruto of the girl's mother and what she had done to him. The memories of pain and anguish quickly returned to the forefront of his mind and Naruto instinctively lowered himself to the ground, backing up slightly and turned to face the girl with his ears tucked down and his tails low.

"Ino… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I hurt you… please forgive me, I… I didn't mean too." Naruto whimpered out while slowly backing away. When he looked at Ino, all he could see was images of her mother hitting him, hurting him, cutting him. It was like he was there again, the memories were burnt into his mind just like that flames that nearly killed him, he could feel the pain, he could still hear there horrible words and laughter when they beat him. Naruto lent closer to the ground and tried to cover his ears in an attempt to silence the voices of the memories, but it was useless.

Ino's mind was in such confusion that she didn't properly understand his response, she was too busy looking at him like he was a ghost, not a scar, not a cut, not a bruise could be seen on him. _'What? How is that even possible? Hows does he have no cuts? Is this even Naruto? Wait… did he just apologise?'_ If Ino couldn't comprehend what was going on before, that confusion had nothing on this. _'Why does he think it's his fault? He didn't mean to hurt me, it was my mum who hurt him and… It should be mum who's saying sorry not Naruto!' _In an attempt to calm him down and say that it wasn't his fault it was her mum's, Ino stepped forward but Naruto just stepped back muttering over and over that he was sorry. She was about to try and comfort him again but stopped herself when Tohru, Hinata and Neji burst through the bushes.

Tohru looked from Naruto's cowering form to Ino and back again, from her perspective this scene looked very different to what it actually was. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY LITTLE BROTHER!" Tohru yelled at the little girl practically knocking her off her feet and terrifying the hell out of her. Hinata just looked at her best friend and quickly ran over to him to try to calm him down.

Hinata looked over her shaking friend and pulled him close to her for a hug, at first he seemed to jump at her touch but as she held him she could easily feel him relax as his whole body seemed to soften after even a few seconds. He seemed to get like this often, as this was the third time Hinata had seen him like this. As she glanced around while still holding him, Hinata could see that Tohru was probably about to do something to the mysterious little girl that they all thought had done something to Naruto. Naruto, who had somewhat returned to normal, could also see that Ino was probably about to receive a harsh beating and looked too scared to even think of a response, he had to stop his sister.

"Nee-chan don't hurt Ino-san… she didn't do anything, it was me… I hurt her." Naruto said while pointing a clawed hand at what remained of a small scab that was just above Ino's elbow. Tohru stooped her charging and looked towards the small girls arm, their was indeed a scratch but it was old and mostly healed. Tohru tried to analyse the situation but couldn't come up with any reason that would cause her little brother to get like he was, unless he was upset that he had hurt the girl but that also didn't make any sense as there was no way that something so small could affect him like this. Tohru was about to ask a few questions but was beaten to it when Ino spoke up. She had been terrified when Tohru first began to walk to her, but now that she had stopped Ino was able to speak up.

"But Naruto-san, you may have scratched me, but that was an accident… don't you… don't you remember what my mum… did to you?" Ino didn't really know any other way to say it, and it pained her when she saw Naruto flinch as she asked him and whimper slightly. This however sparked everyone else's interest, even Neji looked like he wanted to know what this girl's mum had done as everyone wondered if it had anything to do with how upset Naruto currently was. Hinata was probably the most concerned out of all of them, this scene looked oddly familiar to when Naruto had accidentally cut her and she wondered if they were connected somehow. Naruto felt his best friend squeeze his hand and he wrapped one of his tails around her shoulder in thanks for her support, he was slowly returning to reality after being reminded almost in graphic detail of that night. He looked up at the girl who's mother had so badly beaten and almost killed him if he wasn't saved by Hinata and a few tears welled up in his eyes, regardless on how horrible and cruel her mother had been to him there was only one thought that was going through his little mind however.

"Do… Do you think I'm a monster too? Like… Like your mother thinks of me?" Naruto's voice was raspy as fear began to breed doubt in his mind. For the little time he knew Ino he quite liked spending time with her and wished to be her friend, but the fear caused by the constant deep-seeded hatred for him from the villagers caused him to worry that Ino's mother had turned Ino against him, just like so many other parents had in the past.

Ino looked at him stunned, how after all that had happened could he ask such a strange question it made no sense, this whole thing made no sense. Her mother's hatred for him, her father telling her that what her mother did was very wrong, her mother's words telling her that Naruto was a demon and Naruto being more upset about whether or not she thought he was a monster, whatever that meant, over what her mother did to him. None of it made a shred of sense. As she thought about it though she recalled the numerable times that her mother and those three men had called him a monster and a demon, she didn't know why they called him those things, were they true? Was Naruto actually a monster? No, he couldn't be he was too nice to be a monster that everyone hates. That's when a thought occurred to Ino, is he worried that she thinks that he's a monster and hates him? Well of course she doesn't, she just wanted to cry and scream and tell him how sorry she was that her mum was so mean to him. But before she could respond with her answer, a voice was heard behind her that caught everyone's attention.

"Ino-chan! Ino-chan! Where have you gone my little princess?" Came a man's voice about ten meters away. Tohru jumped at the voice and moved to stand in front of Naruto, ready to defend him if the need arose. Said hanyou had mostly recovered from his memories and was once again standing on two feet, but he hadn't let go of Hinata's hand with his tail however. Hinata was a little scared at who the voice belonged to, but felt better knowing that her friend and cousin were next to her. Ino however felt very relieved upon hearing her father's voice, at least he might be able to explain to the crazy woman that she didn't do anything to Naruto.

Inoichi had been looking for his daughter for a few hours now but still hadn't found his little girl. She had been going off for walks more and more often since that night, and with good reason too as a five year old girl should never have seen something so… wrong. Inoichi could tell from the memory that it had deeply scared her and probably would cause her some problems either now or later in life but he hoped that he would be able to counsel her enough that it doesn't cause her to lose sanity.

Inoichi also worried for his wife, she had been especially quite since she had been knocked out by one of his jutsu and with good reason so. Whether or not Inoichi liked it, he was bound by duty to report what his wife had done to the Hokage which he had done that morning. The Hokage had been furious at what his wife had done and immediately began writing down her punishment and signing off her sentence. However, for some reason Inoichi got a strange feeling when he was reporting to the Hokage that he had already known about Naruto's 'death'. Inoichi was then shocked almost enough to have his hair turn grey when the Hokage had explained that Naruto had lived through his wife's inhuman beatings. He had been told that Naruto's bloodline kept him alive and that he was being temporarily looked after by the Hyuga clan until a few days ago when he was given his own residence to stay. Inoichi was amazed that the Hyuga clan had even bothered to look at him let alone help him and he thought it cruel to leave a five year old in a house by himself but the Hokage had explained that Naruto now had many friends among the Hyuga clan and that he would never truly be alone anymore.

The Hokage had then handed him a small document containing his wife's sentence: death, and he began to weep. However, it was then that he noticed that there was a space for another person's signature and asked the Hokage who else needed to sign. The Hokage had just smiled at him and calmly said it was for Naruto to sign and that if he did sign then Inoichi's wife would go free and unprosecuted. Inoichi's heart had sank to his feet at that, how could he ever get Naruto to do something like that? He would never sign to allow his wife to go free after what she did to him and he told the Hokage just that. And again the Hokage just smiled but he also said something that opened Inoichi's eyes and brought him hope, the Hokage had said that Naruto always signed. Now this opened Inoichi's eyes because basically the Hokage had said this wasn't the first time Naruto had been beaten like this and it gave him hope because maybe Naruto would sign to allow his wife to go free after all.

Inoichi couldn't fathom how someone could ever forgive anyone like Naruto must have done for a few people, but it certainly did reinforce one thing about the little hanyou, he definitely wasn't a demon. After Inoichi had left the Hokage's office, he had hurried home to his wife to tell her that she still had a chance to survive, but when he had told her that the only way for her to live and be free was to get Naruto to sign she just broke down in tears and yelled over and over that the 'demon would never want to save someone'. He was upset that his wife still thought of him as a demon, even after he told her that the Hokage had said that Naruto had always signed to release those who harmed him, but there was little he could do. So with a heavy heart he had left his wife to her sorrow and had went to find his daughter.

As he continued to walk Inoichi could have swore that he had heard his daughter's voice coming from the park and proceeded to wander through the little forest behind the playground to search for her. Calling out to her as he walked, it didn't take long before he heard a response from her. She sounded slightly upset and quite afraid. Of what, Inoichi had no clue, but regardless he did speed off in her direction.

Naruto's ears twitched twice as he heard the man approach. Ino had just replied to the voice and referred to him as her father and Naruto's already jumpy nerves virtually collapsed at the thought of another beating from a family member of Ino's. He just stood their shaking and praying that her father was different and it wasn't long before he got to find out. About ten seconds after Ino had called out to her father, a tall man in casual brown clothing with bright blond hair in the same style as Ino's emerged from a few bushes. Naruto lowered himself to the ground once again, still praying that he wasn't going to beat him, while Hinata held his tail for support. Tohru cautiously moved herself in front of the children. They all stared up at the man with questions in their eyes, for Naruto it was a question of whether the man would think of him as a monster, for the others it was questions relating to why Naruto was so scared at seeing Ino.

Inoichi was a bright man and was always prepared for almost any situation, it was one of the reasons that he had lasted so long as a ninja and also why he could so easily manipulate people mentally. However, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw when he found his daughter. As he emerged from some bushes he found his daughter staring worryingly up at him, almost begging him to say something. He looked up from his daughter and saw a fairly tall and attractive looking teenage Hyuga standing protectively in front of three children. The first two of the children surprised Inoichi as he easily identified them as the heirs of both the Main and Branch families of the Hyugas. But it was the third child that made Inoichi almost soil his pants, between the three Hyuga, a little boy with blond hair, two fox ears and two fox tails held himself low to the ground with his ears and tails motionless while whimpering slightly. Inoichi couldn't believe that he was gazing upon the form of the young boy his wife had so brutally assaulted, but his disbelief on seeing him could never compare to that he had when he noticed something about Naruto. His wounds were all healed, not even a single scar remained. Inoichi looked upon the little hanyou stunned and could tell that he was scared of him, but before Inoichi could even ask why or if this boy was really Naruto, because this boy bore no scars, the Hyuga standing guard of the children stepped forward and addressed him.

"Inoichi-sama, this girl, is she yours?" Tohru said while pointing to Ino, her voice was commanding and filled with dignity and grace, a way of speaking that only the Hyuga ever seemed to master. Inoichi wasn't even one bit surprised that his name was known, after all he was the head of the Yamanaka clan and when he nodded, Tohru continued. "I ask you to explain to me why it is that your daughter causes Naruto-kun to turn almost catatonic? Does it have something to do with a small wound he claims to have inflicted upon her and has been frequently apologising for?" This one took Inoichi by surprise, if anything he would have thought that Naruto was scared of Ino because of the memories of what his wife had done to him, but here Naruto was getting all upset about a small cut he had caused her.

"I… I don't fully understand Hyuga-san, Naruto-kun had accidentally scratched her on… _that_ night, and I don't know why he's still sorry about it, it was only a small scratch." Naruto visibly flinched at the mention of _that_ night and Tohru wondered what happened on _that_ night that Inoichi was referring to.

"Inoichi-sama, could you please explain to me what is that night you are referring and perhaps why it could be causing Naruto pain?" Inoichi's stance changed at this and his face screwed up in confusion, they didn't know what happened? Didn't Naruto explain to them what had happened to him? Did he not tell them what his wife had done to him? Inoichi shook his head slightly as all sorts of reasons surfaced in his mind, and he decided to explain to the Hyuga what exactly had happened.

"I'm really surprised that you don't know Hyuga-san… Well the night that I'm referring to was almost two weeks ago, it's about… it's about how Naruto was so badly injured and nearly killed." Everyone in the vicinity excluding Ino and himself gasped at his words. Now that Tohru thought about it, she never was told the reason why Naruto had been so badly injured and she was pretty sure that Naruto didn't even mention it to Hitomi. Hinata recalled the images of how she had found Naruto, surrounding in a pool of his own blood, and subconsciously pulled on Naruto's tail that was wrapped around her wrist for comfort. Naruto didn't know what to think, he had seen that memory and lived through the pain a good three or four times and he really hadn't wanted to share it with his friends, it would just needlessly upset them. "You see, my daughter Ino, was with Naruto-kun that night and they were playing together before he accidentally scratched her arm with his claws. He had done so by accident and immediately apologised but… but a woman saw what had happen and because of her hatred for him, assumed that Naruto-kun had meant to hurt my daughter. Naruto-kun and Ino-chan both tried to explain that it was an accident but the woman wouldn't listen and… and kept beating him and eventually enlisted the help of three other men, they beat him with weapons and… and fire jutsu until he finally collapsed and I thought he was killed. That is until I found him today."

Everyone tensed at his words, they sounded accurate, too accurate and Neji and Tohru both came to the same conclusion, either this man was one of the three that helped that woman or he saw the whole thing and didn't even care to intervene. Hinata was too busy weeping for her friend at the thoughts of all those horrible people hurting him to think about how it was that he knew. Naruto himself was confused on how this man knew so much and was also thinking along the same lines as his big sister and Neji. Tohru was about to voice the thoughts on everyone's mind but it was surprisingly Naruto who had spoken up, regardless on how much the man reminded him of his horrible memories he had pulled himself together enough to speak.

"Inoichi-sama… how… how do you know what happened?" Naruto's voice crackled as he spoke, almost like he was afraid of asking, or afraid of getting an answer he didn't want to hear. As he spoke he had stepped forward a little, making it easier for Inoichi to see just how much damage his wife had inflicted upon his psyche, he was pretty much trembling enough to thicken a milk shake.

Inoichi looked down at the little hanyou with a sad face, he really didn't want to be the one to tell him this but he really had no choice. "I know Naruto-kun because… because I used a jutsu to search Ino-chan's memories and found out what happened by viewing it through her eyes. I… I also know who the woman was and… and I assume from what I saw in the memories, that you know as well." He noticed the sudden change in Naruto's stance and instantly knew that the little hanyou did indeed know, after all Inoichi's wife did proclaim Ino to be her daughter before she beat him up. He also noticed the look in the teenage Hyuga's eyes, they were darker then usual and seemed to carry a fair amount of ill intent towards the person that had hurt Naruto. He was about to continue his explanation and voice to everyone else who the person was, but he was cut off by Naruto, who shocked Inoichi to his very core by what he said.

"I… I don't want your wife to be hurt because of what she did to me…" Before Naruto could continue any further, everyone was suddenly brought to their knees by a massive amount of killer intent being released by Tohru.

"IT WAS YOUR WIFE! IT WAS YOUR WIFE WHO DID THAT TO NARUTO-KUN? DID YOU READ THE REPORT ON THE DAMAGE SHE DID TO HIM!" Naruto cringed under the volume level of his big sister's voice, his little fox ears were far too sensitive for it. He looked up into his sister's eyes and saw the rage within them, a rage that he could tell she wanted to unleash upon Ino's mother and perhaps even Inoichi. Even though he knew that it would make her feel much better, he knew it would be the wrong thing to do and would only make matters worse. So before she could follow through with whatever plans were being processed within her mind, Naruto reached up with a tail and wrapped it slightly around her leg to get her attention.

Tohru looked down to the little hanyou and noticed something was slightly off about him. His eyes were glassy but not from being wet with tears, they were like a reflection of his loneliness. A deep empty void that was Naruto being he met Hinata, Hitomi, Hiashi and Tohru, was reflected within his eyes. Tohru would have done pretty much anything to get rid of those eyes from him, they didn't suit him the least and they hurt her just by looking at them. The sorrow, the sadness, the loneliness they projected was soul consuming and Tohru was very close to crying. But, there was something else within his eyes that she couldn't place, they seemed to be longing for something? But for what Tohru couldn't tell, was it acknowledgement? Understanding?, she just didn't know. But she did know that he wanted her to calm down and not strike Inoichi or his wife. She didn't know why he couldn't want them punished for what she did to him but would allow him to ask whatever he wanted before she beat the shit out of them.

Naruto smiled seeing his big sister relax and released his tail from her leg. Turning to Inoichi he then slowly began walking towards him, while keeping his head slightly lowered. He prayed the whole time that Inoichi wouldn't attack him. Inoichi, seeing the nervous state Naruto was in, knelt down on one knee so that he was almost as short as the little hanyou to try and make him feel safer. When Naruto was no more then a meter away from Inoichi, he raised his head to look the older man in the eyes.

"I don't want your wife hurt because of me… I will sign the piece of paper to keep her safe. But I want to be able to speak with her one day on why… on why she thinks I'm such a monster…" Naruto's voice became chocked up when he spoke the word monster. Regardless of how many times all his new friends told him he wasn't a monster, it was kind of hard for a five year old to dismiss all the pain and memories that was associated with the word and the amount of people that constantly called and still call him it.

Inoichi felt sorry for Naruto, all of the little hanyou's life he had probably been referred to as a demon and a monster and Inoichi hated it. He felt sorry but he also felt angry, angry at his wife for being so naive and thinking that Naruto was what he kept locked away, angry at the villagers for also doing the same and he was angry with the council for not allowing the Hokage to allow better care for Naruto.

"I have been always called a monster… and a demon, but I've never known why… No one ever tells me and I just want to know. The old man keeps telling me I'm not old enough to ask any questions to the people who hate me but… But I want you to promise that I can speak to her when the old man says I'm old enough." Inoichi looked up with a puzzled look on his face and mouthed the words 'old man?' to Tohru, whom then responded by mouthing the word 'Hokage', to which Inoichi gave a small chuckle before looking back at Naruto.

"I promise Naruto-kun that you may speak to my wife about her nightmarish actions towards you when the Hokage says you are old enough." Inoichi paused slightly so that Naruto could nod and allow a small smile to appear on the little hanyou's face, before he continued. "And, I will tell you now before you ask. That my daughter and I do not think you are a monster, and I cannot express how sorry I am that you suffered by my wife's hand. If you ever need the assistance of the Yamanaka Clan, all you have to do is ask." Inoichi smiled when he virtually saw the relief pore off the little hanyou in front of him, said hanyou then proceeded to happily wave his two tails and his grin became more sincere while a few tears could be seen welling up in his eyes. Naruto then put a clawed hand into his pocket and withdrew the two remaining swirling red stones he found earlier and handed one to Inoichi and one to Ino.

"They are my clan symbol. And I only give them to people and clans who are my friends." Naruto proclaimed with a much happier voice before Inoichi or Ino could ask him what they were for. Inoichi nodded his head in thanks while Ino clutched hers tightly and thanked him in a loud and full voice. Naruto then walked over to Inoichi, a lot quicker and calmer then he had been previously, and asked him for the paper to sign. Inoichi felt slightly guilty for some reason, like he was using this poor child to free his wife from a punishment she very much deserved, but Naruto seemed to not worry about it so he guessed that he shouldn't. Although he did make a mental promise to find a way to make it up to the little hanyou some day.

After being handed the documents Naruto looked for the dotted line that was below his name. He never knew why, but the Hokage had always made these documents with some sort of weird jutsu that Naruto never understood, because he was always made to sign in a rather peculiar way. He tightened one of his hands hard enough so that his claws cut through his palm just enough to draw a few drops of blood. Hinata gasped at what he had done and promptly asked him if he was ok.

"Nah, I'm fine Hinata-chan, this is just how the old man told me to sign. It doesn't really hurt that much and it will get better really quickly. Thanks Hinata-chan for worrying though." Hinata blushed slightly from his praise but was still worried as she watched him hover his slightly bloodied hand above the documents. A single drop of blood fell from his hand and landed on the dotted line, within seconds a magnificent white and red light erupted from the documents. Everyone in the vicinity had to shield their eyes from the near blinding light, Naruto of course, was shielding his with his tails.

When the light finally cleared the scrolls were gone, all that stood in their place was a grinning Naruto. "Your wife is free now Inoichi-sama. Just remember to keep your promise… I… I want to eventually find out why everyone hates me so much." As Naruto's smile slowly faded as he once again recalling various memories. Inoichi looked down at the little hanyou and tears fell from his eyes, this little boy had given his wife a second chance after all she had done to him and his only request was to talk to her on why she hates him. He could see the damage the villagers had done to his psyche, he had suffered much at their hands and yet he was still willing to give them a chance, there couldn't possibly be another person on earth that would be as forgiving as he is.

"Thank you… Thank you so much Naruto-kun… I have no idea on how you could forgive her so easily but… but I promise I will make it up to you." Inoichi said as the tears fell freely from his eyes and he gently lifted the little hanyou into the air. Naruto at first was a little nervous but he could detect no ill intent from Inoichi and he slowly relaxed. "You… you have been dealt a fate worse then death Naruto-kun… a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone, and you are beaten and abused by those ungrateful villagers… I… I have no idea how you have survived for so long, you must have been so lonely." Naruto was confused as to what Inoichi was talking about but looked up at him and used his two tails to pulled himself from his grasp and then bounded over to Hinata, Tohru and Neji and wrapped a tail around Hinata's hand and Tohru's leg.

"I… I was. I use to wake up at night and cry from the pain I felt from being alone until I went back to sleep. Yes… I was lonely, but not any more. Because now I have friends that mean more to me then anything else in the whole world. And if I have them, then I will never be lonely again." Naruto proclaimed happily while glancing at those around him. It was true too, his friends were more precious then anything, even his own life. And he would gladly travel to the ends of the earth if it could protect them.

Inoichi nodded his head in understanding, before once again thanking the little hanyou and promising to eventually make it up to him. Naruto just smiled and said that if he could be friends with Ino and him then that was, in his eyes, more then enough. With one final goodbye both groups went in there separate directions, each looking forward to the next time they see each other. Although one of them in particular had a question on her little mind that she wished she had asked before they left, it was something that she had only noticed as they were leaving. _'Did Naruto-san have two tails?' _

Some dark alleyway in Konoha

In a much darker area of Konoha, three black hooded figures met to discuss a plan that they had been preparing for many years. The first one, who had come a little later then the first two, was the one who started their little discussion. "So… I have come as requested. It is unwise for me to be here again so I will cut through all the pleasantries and get straight to the point. I assume you wish to know how the preparations have been going along?" The man's voice was cold and uncaring, and you could practically hear the words murderer being whispered by the wind around him. The other two cloaked figures nodded in agreement, while the first one just rolled his eyes. He was getting use to the fact that neither of his benefactors ever spoke but it still irritated the shit out of him.

"Well… all of them have been taken care of, everything that you have requested has been prepared for and we only await your command on when you want this plan of yours executed. And also there's the matter of payment, you both promised that I would be paid after every aspect of the plan was prepared for and executed." He waited with evident impatience as his benefactors privately discussed between themselves before walking back to him and both outstretched a hand. One of the hands contained a small scroll which obviously contained his next orders and the date for the plans execution, while the other one's hand contained a handsomely large bag of ryou. He grinned greedily as he took both the scroll and payment from his benefactors.

Unrolling the scroll the held his next orders he grinned delightfully at the date set for the plan, it would make it so much easier as the festival would have attracted everyones attention and the Anbu would be distracted as well. "Hehehe, very well… two weeks and a day it shall be. I bid you gentlemen goodbye, as this is the last time we shall meet like this, as the final payment shall be collected by one of my colleagues."


	10. Chapter 9: A dream realised and confiden

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

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**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Right, well heres the next chapter. Hopefully it will be liked more then the last chapter, but then again, I'm only really writing this for my sister and well... she likes it.

Anyway, I did mention in my last chapter release that I had been having quite a fair bit of fun with this story and was thinking of writing another one at the same time. It will be quite an interesting story I'm hoping and I believe that it should be well liked, the only problem with writting it will be that it, like this fanfiction, will only be a side job. Which means that if I do write it then I will halve the time spent on Curse of a Hanyou and spend it on my new story idea. My sister would prefer just focusing on Curse of a Hanyou, but I believe I should leave the choice to my online readers. For this choice I have added a poll on my account homepage.

Oh, and to answer another question that I have been receiving lately. Yes, I do believe my usual work is better written then this Fanfiction and No I will not under any circumstance place any of my other works online. I will only place this Fanfiction online because there is almost no chance of someone stealing this work and turning it into a real novel.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot line in this Fanfiction.

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Chapter 9: A dream realised and confidence in friends

Hinata Hyuga awoke from another peaceful nights sleep from the beams of sunlight that was shining through her window. Giving a small annoyed sound a being woken up from a nice dream she was having and tried to recollect whatever memories of it that remained. She was pretty sure that it was about Naruto, Neji and herself however, as all of her dreams recently have been about her and her best friend and her cousin playing together in some park or playground. She loved every minute of them and wished that they lasted forever, luckily for this little Hyuga, they did, as everyday she would wake up and then go and play with them either at Naruto's house or at the park. Two weeks had passed since Hinata had learnt about who had attacked her friend and she had to admit that those two weeks had to be the best of her entire life. Regardless of the fact that she had only lived for not quite five years.

She tried to go back to sleep, but being a little child made that virtually impossible as children always seemed to have boundless energy upon awaking, and Hinata was no different. So slowly pulling herself out of the covers of her bed she grabbed her stuffed toy, Mr Foxy, and jumped out of bed. She shivered as her feet hit the cold floors of her room, being in the Hyuga clan did have its downsides and having to have cold tiles for flooring was one of them. As the harsh cold of her floors crept up her body, Hinata pulled Mr Foxy in tightly for some sort of warmth. She looked down at the red and white fox plushy with loving eyes, it had been the second gift her best friend had given her and she cherished it immensely. And she didn't even ask if she could have it, Naruto had just seen her playing with it a fair bit when she was over his house and had given it to her without any second thoughts when she had left that day.

As she walked around her little lavender room getting ready for the day she never once let go of her favourite little toy. It was seen as very un-Hyuga like for anyone to be seen playing or even holding such a thing even children, mainly because most of the Hyuga elders deemed that such things were for commoners and weren't up to their standards. But Hinata disagreed, she just couldn't see how such a harmless and fun little toy could be so bad. But, as with many things that she wanted to do, it was forbidden and had to be done away from public eyes, lest she shame her family. She never liked the whole Hyuga superiority and she wasn't going to start.

After getting dressed in a little purple kimono with a black sash, she quickly hurried over to her bedside table and stared at her calendar with excitement. She had been keeping track of the date by crossing out each day with a black pen for a few months now, ever since she first received the calendar from her mother. She was waiting for one particular day, which was fast approaching for tomorrow was that day. Tomorrow was her fifth birthday. Hinata remembered her last two birthdays almost as if they were yesterday, but she had never really enjoyed them as they were always very formal and nothing fun ever happened. She had heard that a few people outside of the Hyuga clan had a lot of fun on their birthdays, and that they played all sorts of games and got to eat all sorts of yummy food and have a big cake and presents.

Sure, Hinata had received presents on her birthdays before, but they were all things to help her be a better Hyuga, things like etiquette books, behaviour guide and clothing that was plain white. It wasn't that Hinata wasn't thankful that she got those presents it was just that she had no use for them until she was older, and even then she might still find them boring. The only presents she ever really enjoyed were those from her parents and aunty and uncle, but they always had to give them to her in secret and she could never be seen with them by other Hyuga's so she often didn't get to play with them. So if her birthdays were so boring why would she be so excited about this one? Well quite simply actually. Her best friend had somehow discovered that her birthday was coming up and had asked her if she was having a party. Apparently when she had said no and that they were only going to have a formal lunch, he had gone to her mother and arranged a party for her at his house after the 'boring lunch for old fart people', as he so gracefully put it, had finished.

When she originally was told that Naruto had organised a party for her she was ecstatic and rushed to him to give him a hug and thank him. Which, because she had been running so fast, had knocked him over and caused her to turn multiple shades of red, while at the same time apologising profusely to her friend for knocking the wind out of him. She was just thankful no one had been there to see or she might have passed out from embarrassment.

Grabbing a black biro she quickly crossed out today before glancing at the clock. She couldn't quite read the time but she had memorised the positions the clock had to be at before her lessons with her mother started and realised she only had about ten minutes to finish getting ready. So placing Mr Foxy back on her back after giving it another hug, she quickly ran off into her little bathroom to clean herself in preparation for the day. She wasn't usually this enthusiastic about getting ready for a day as she always found her classes difficult and the elders were always mean to her whenever they watched and she messed up. But today was different, today was Saturday which means that Naruto would come over. She always felt happier when her best friend was over as he never picked on her when she messed up; he just kept encouraging and cheering for her to never give up and to try again.

Rising her mouth out she once again looked up at the clock before rushing out of her room, she hoped that Naruto was coming soon as her cousin usually slept in on Saturdays and was always grumpy if she woke him up to play.

At a certain blond haired kitsune hanyou's house, said hanyou was still asleep in his little bed. He hadn't quite grown accustom to sleeping on something so comfy but he loved it regardless. To anyone that looked upon his sleeping body he would have appeared quite peaceful, but to those that knew him well enough you could catch the tell tale signs of a mental struggle. His brow was slightly sweating and his two tails would sometimes change their usual movement after giving a slight twitch. Naruto had many nightmares while he slept, and it was for that purpose that he disliked sleeping. Most of his nightmares were usually old memories of the villagers being mean to him, beating him, ignoring him or just generally insulting him. But this one was different, this one could be seen as a true nightmare, but only to Naruto.

In Naruto's Dream

Naruto was running and bounding down the many alleyways of Konoha as fast as his little legs could carry him. His ears twitched left and right as he scanned his surroundings, they were coming, and they were coming fast. He had been trying to outrun them for what seemed like hours, but it seemed like they just wouldn't quit. No matter how fast he ran, they always ran faster and would soon be upon him. Naruto couldn't even remember what he had done, usually they made up something about him stealing their food or killing on of their friends or family. All of those stories confused and hurt him, but the silence he was treated with this time was soul shattering. He was having a pleasant day playing with Hinata when he suddenly heard shouts directed towards him and didn't have even a split second to react before a glass bottle was shattered across his head. He had looked up at the crowd that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere before bolting into the trees.

He had seen the looks in their eyes, they were almost identical to those he saw on Ino's mother that time, they were going to kill him. But unlike last time, there were almost fifty villagers in this mob, enough to pound him into dust. Naruto quickly turned another corner, praying that this time he would get away, but what he came face to face with caused the little hanyou to fall to his knees and cry tears of hopelessness. The corner he had turned had led him to a dead end.

The shouts and yells of the villagers grew louder and louder as they approached him, Naruto only had enough time to turn his head towards them before he felt the first punch delivered to his face. The force from the punch caused him to fly through the air, slamming hard into the wall behind him. A audible crack was heard as a rib snapped in two within Naruto's chest, followed by a loud yelp of pain. The men and women that had gathered just laughed at his pathetic display of pain.

As Naruto struggled to pull himself from the small crater he had made in the wall, he slowly opened his teary eyes and looked at the people who had gathered to kill him together. His little heart almost stopped when he saw people he recognised mixed within them, the old man, Tohru, Hinata, Neji, Hitomi, Hiashi, Hizashi, Hisano, Teuchi, Ayame and even Ino and Inoichi. They had all gathered, and they all wanted his blood.

"W-w-why?... Why do y-y-you all want to h-h-hurt me… Y-you are all m-my f-family. I… I thought you all l-liked me?... Why… WHY DO YOU ALL HATE ME? WHY DOES EVERYONE ALWAYS HATE ME?" Naruto's voice was hurt and full of confusion, someone his age could never understand the villager's hatred, let alone why the only people who had ever shown him kindness and whom he thought of as family could also join in with the villagers to hurt him. He was so confused, why did everyone always hate him, hurt him and dispise his very being? None of the other children were ever treated like he was, so what made him so different? Was it because of his bloodline? Or something else that he hadn't thought of? His hurt and confusion slowly turned to anger, white hot anger and he could almost feel it start to burn his skin. He was angry at the villagers for always hurting him and berating him, he was angry at the old man for not sending some of his ninjas to defend him, but most of all he was angry at himself. Angry at himself for not truly understanding what he did to everyone to make them hate him so much. Naruto kept thinking of endless reasons for their hatred, and only looked up at the mob gathered when he heard one of them reply to his question.

"You want to know why we all hate you?" Hisano started.

"It's quite easy actually," Hizashi continued with a mocking smirk.

"It isn't for any other reason," Hitomi continued without her usual sweet voice.

"Then the simple fact," Hiashi said while staring down at Naruto like he was trash and completely beneath his feet.

"That we despise your very existence," Sarutobi added while smoking his pipe.

"And only got close to you to trick you," Neji also added without any hint of emotion.

"Into thinking that you were truly loved," Teuchi said will shaking a bowl of ramen at the boy mockingly.

"So that we could hurt you even more," Ayame finished with an evil grin.

"You want to know why we hate you, Naruto?" Ino and Inoichi asked him in unison.

It's easy, we all think that you are a monster." Tohru proclaimed like the revelation meant nothing to her.

Naruto felt a piece of his heart virtually ripped from his chest with each sentence they spoke. The villagers could hurt him with their words, but they did less damage then a fly in comparison to the bomb his friends just dropped on him. Before they came into his life he had nothing, they were all he cared about now and would do anything for them. But here they were, standing in front of him with a mob of villagers telling him that they hated him just the same and that they all thought he was a monster. Naruto fell to his knees as the pain gripped his heart and threatened to tear what was left out. Tears fell freely from his face as the realisation finally hit him, they didn't ever care, they just wanted to hurt him even more then anyone ever had.

Naruto felt weak as more and more tears continued to fall from his eyes, clutching his chest as he felt the pain in his heart grow to levels he couldn't have ever imagined. The pain just kept increasing as the mob before him just begun to laugh at his pathetic form. He started to find it had to breathe as the pain from his heart begun to spread to the rest of his body until eventually he fell forward from lack of oxygen, but before he hit the ground he felt himself being caught by two small hands.

Glancing up at whoever had caught him he felt the pain in his heart lessen slightly upon seeing the face of his best friend. He hadn't heard her speak when the others did and he prayed on whatever gods existed that at least she didn't hate him. "P-Please Hinata-chan… tell me… tell me its j-just all a dream… I… I don't know why I'm such a monster… tell them… tell them I'm not a monster… please." Naruto pleaded to his best friend. He could see something in her eyes that wasn't in any of the other people's, he could see the reflection of the friendship they shared sparkling brightly. Her face was soft and her hold on him was gentle and kind. He could tell just by the way she held him that she didn't hate him, he just prayed the others would leave her alone, he didn't want her hurt because of him.

Naruto watched as Hinata spoke to him, but for some reason he couldn't hear what she said. Slowly the world around him began to warp and changed colours and the ground beneath him began to shake. As the ground shook, cracks began to appear and black tendrils shot out from them. One by one the people in the mob disappeared as the fast approaching tendrils began engulfing everyone and everything around him. Naruto cried out to each of his friends as they were engulfed by the encroaching darkness. Just as the last of the mob was finally engulfed, Naruto noticed the tendrils creeping towards Hinata. He tried to move her out of the way but found that he could not move, glancing towards each of his limbs he saw that he too had been captured by the darkness and was slowly being drawn into it. Glancing back at his friend with desperate eyes, he felt his heart virtually shatter however when he saw the changed look on her face, it was a face that never should have existed on such a delicate angel.

Her face was darkened and lines of rage had appeared along her face, her teeth were clenched and her hair was wild and un-kept. But her features weren't what hurt him, no, it was her eyes. No longer where they the normal pupiless pale lavender filled with kindness and cheerfulness. Now they were pitch black, completely void of any feeling or emotion except for one: hatred. Before Naruto could even process a thought on what was going on around him and with Hinata, he saw her open her mouth in preparation to speak, but all he heard her say was one word: "**MONSTER!**"

Naruto awoke in his bed with a start, with cold sweat pouring off his body in copious amounts. He could feel wet streaks down his face, obviously he had been crying quite profusely in his sleep as the neck of his shirt was soaked. His body was trembling slightly and his tails were twitching erratically, his body was still in shock from the horrible nightmare. Speaking of nightmare, Naruto was relieved beyond comprehension when he awoke enough to realise that everything he had just experienced was just that, a nightmare. The memories of his friend's faces however was another thing entirely, they were just like the villager's faces except they hurt him on a far deeper level then he thought possible, and the change on his best friend's face just took the cake.

As Naruto tried to forget the horrible events of the nightmare he found himself breathing to fast and tried to slow it down so that his heart rate would return to normal and he could think straight but the memories of his friend's face just kept reappearing in his mind. "I won't let my friends ever think like the villagers… I will prove to them all that I am worth their friendship. I will prove to the whole village that I'm not a monster!" Naruto proclaimed loudly and filled with determination, if anyone were to look within his blue eyes at that moment, they would have seen a small flicker of flame. A flame that has always led Konoha through every tough time, every war, every famine, it has always been there. And now burning brightly, the Will of Fire could be seen dancing wildly within the little hanyou's blue eyes. "But first I need to find something that everyone will respect me for and look up to me instead of always down like I'm trash!" Naruto sat on his bed thinking long and hard, not even aware of the fact that he had successfully distracted himself from his horrible nightmare. What he needed was a position of power or respect where the whole village would forget whatever caused them to hate him so much and instead treat him with kindness and gave him the kind of attention he craved. But sadly, Naruto was not the brightest person in the world and came up with nothing but dead ideas. The only feasible one seemed to be a great ninja, but even then that would not get him liked by everyone.

Deciding to think more on it later, Naruto energetically jumped out his bed to prepare for the days events, still blissfully unaware on how easily he had saved himself from perhaps a mental collapse with just getting lost on a different train of thought. Walking around his slightly messy room, Naruto picked up the necessary cloths for that day from off the floor. Just because he was able to look after himself at the age of five didn't necessarily mean he could clean properly as well. He did however pick up a few of the toys he had left out after playing with them the night before and put each of them in their respective boxes.

After discarding his nightclothes into his rather large and full laundry basket he then proceeded to dress himself in a simple white shirt and blue pants. He was going to continue his thoughts on how to be respected, that is until a rather large rumble emitted itself from his stomach, virtually causing a mini earthquake in his room. A grin quickly appeared on Naruto's face as he recognised the rumbling from his stomach and some began drooling at the very thought of what was going to happen. "RAMEN TIME!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs before disappearing from his room and reappearing in his kitchen/dinning room/lounge room in record time.

Naruto had become morbidly obsessed with the salty noodle soup to the point where it almost became the only grocery items he ever purchased. The problem was he had become incredibly impatient with the three minutes it took to cook the stuff and frequently burnt himself trying different methods to reduce that time. His latest idea was just poring cold water into the ramen cup and superheating it in the microwave. While this idea was relatively stupid he was still game to try it, so upon hearing a small ding from his microwave he speed to it to retrieve his treasure.

He was able to pick up the cup without burning himself thanks to the fact he was wearing cooking mittens. Which he now wore whenever making ramen thanks to his last burning incident. Placing the glowing goodness down on his little kitchen table he quickly dug in, without a care to the world of whether it would scorch him or not. It took about three seconds before the burning from the superheated water actually registered in the little hanyou's mind. Upon feeling said burning, he promptly spat his ramen back into the cup before rushing towards the tap. After swallowing at least two gallons of water, Naruto slowly walked over to a little notepad he kept on his kitchen bench and crossed out his latest idea. Looking back to the superhot ramen with teary eyes, Naruto then proceeded to dispose of the ramen while giving it a small prayer in honour of its untimely end.

Deciding that he was a monster to have killed his precious ramen, he thought it best to make it the recommended way to prevent any more casualties. So in the three minutes it took to cook the noodles, Naruto spent glancing around his new home. Sure he had already lived in it for two weeks, but he still loved to admire it. To him, he was the luckiest boy in the world to be given such a home. It had everything he needed and more, certainly much better then the horrible drafty room he was given back at the orphanage.

As his blue eyes scanned the room, his gaze soon fell on to two of his most precious objects in the whole world. Both of them were photos of those he held close to his heart. The first was a picture of him and all his friends in the Hyuga clan, which included Hinata, Hitomi, Hiashi, Hizashi, Hisano, Neji and Tohru. The second was a picture taken when he was only three, it was a picture of him sitting in the old man's lap while wearing his hokage hat. Naruto stared at the photo with a teary smile as the happy memory of that day returned to the forefront of his mind. He had been picked on all day by the other kids at the orphanage and ran off to the park to cry. That was when the old man found him and took him on a walk and bought him his first ice-cream. Eventually they this photo taken on a park bench.

Naruto was about to place the picture back in place when an idea struck him like a lightning bolt of inspiration from heaven. Virtually causing him to fall to the ground from shock at the sheer ingenuity of the idea. "The old man is the kindest and most loved person in the whole villager… and he's… he's the Hokage and everyone looks up to him! So that's all I have to do! All I have to do is become the Hokage and then everyone will stop hurting and hating me and look up to me! I WILL BECOME THE NEXT HOKAGE!" Naruto declared loud enough to shake the very foundations of Konoha itself. And once again if someone were to look within his eyes, they would see the Will of Fire burning brightly once again within them. For many days after Naruto's declaration, many of the villagers will still wonder who or what caused the loud sonic boom.

At this declaration Naruto recalled one of the numerous topics he and Hiashi spoke of during their 'clan meetings'.

**Flashback**

_Naruto sat in a large office chair, happily spinning it around with his tails until Hiashi had finished his tea and begun their weekly meeting._

"_Well Naruto-kun, I suppose you are getting quite bored waiting for me so I will cut this meeting a little shorter then usual." Naruto bounced up and down on the office chair at this, it wasn't that he dislike talking with Hiashi quite the contrary actually, it was just that Naruto was too excited about a special place that Hitomi was taking Hinata and himself after the meeting to fully concentrate. "So instead of the usual discussions I actually want to ask you a question Naruto-kun. Now don't be upset if you don't understand, I'm just asking to see if you do understand. Naruto-kun, do you have a dream?" _

_Naruto looked up at Hiashi with puzzled eyes, usually Hiashi spoke to him about very serious things and usually taught him about Hyuga traditions and whatnot, but this to Naruto seemed very silly. "Um… Yer I do. Every night I have dreams… But they are usually not very nice ones…" Naruto's tails drooped a bit upon recalling the dream from last night, but quickly put it out of his mind when he heard Hiashi give a small chuckle._

"_That's not quite what I meant Naruto-kun. What I meant was do you have a dream of somewhere you want to get to in life, or something you want to do? Basically do you have a goal in your life?" Naruto frowned upon hearing Hiashi's words. He hadn't really thought about something like that, he was only five after all so it was expected that he hadn't put much thought into what he wanted to do in his life. Looking back towards the expectant Hiashi, Naruto answered with a clear 'no', to which Hiashi just nodded his head._

"_It's ok; I didn't expect that you would. But let me tell you this as a sort of guideline: A life without direction and a goal, is no life at all. This is something my father told me when I was about your age. At the time it made no sense whatsoever, but as time past these words became clearer and clearer to me as it will eventually you." Naruto stared at the man in front of him with curious eyes. Usually when Hiashi tried to teach him something it was a lot more profound then what he just said. But for some reason there was something in that small sentence that made a great deal of sense to him._

_Hiashi could easily tell by the look on the little hanyou's face that he understood to a degree which was a good start. "Ok Naruto-kun, I'll leave that thought in your head for the time being but for now you are free to go." Hiashi watched in mild amusement and Naruto gave a small bow to him before bounding off towards the door. But before he left, Hiashi called out to Naruto. "Oh and if you eventually do find a dream please tell me. I would be very interested to know."_

**Flashback End**

Naruto rethought over Hiashi's words and gave a huge smile. 'Now I have a dream… and I will reach it… to be Hokage, that is my dream.' Naruto was pulled out of his dazed caused by the discovery of his new purpose in life by a small ding from his microwave, indicating that his ramen was done. Still hyped up and pumping with adrenaline from his excitement, he speed over to the microwave and almost broke it trying to retrieve his precious ramen faster then a bullet. Looking at the small cup with nothing short of genuine love he tested the temperature of the broth with his tongue, before downing its entire contents in one rather large mouthful.

Now satisfied, thanks to the ramen he just devoured, Naruto went around his usual morning rituals before rushing out his door. He was in a hurry to get to Hinata's house for a few reasons. One because it was Saturday, Two because he really really wanted to tell everyone that he was going to be the next Hokage, and three because he needed to get Tohru to take him to the shops so he could buy a present for his best friend's birthday tomorrow.

Normally if someone wanted to buy something in Konoha, whether they were ninja or civilians, they would just go to any of the innumerable shops within Konoha's market district. This however, was not the case for Naruto. Every time he wandered close to one of the shops or the market district itself, a random villager would always chase him away or the shop owner themselves would either refuse to sell him anything or they would jack up the prices until he virtually couldn't pay for even a piece of bread. Which is the reason why he needed his sister's help, at least with her with him they might be more willing to allow him to purchase something. She was a Hyuga after all and no Hyuga is ever disrespected in the market district.

After locking up his house and setting up a small trap on either side of his door, just for precautions sake, Naruto turned his bright blue eyes towards the world. Breathing in the morning air Naruto began his walk towards one of his favourite places in the whole world, the Hyuga compound. That is until his nose caught on to a familiar scent. A huge grin appeared on little face and he was soon on all fours, following after the smell along the ground.

About two days after he had moved into his new house, Naruto started picking up different scents of people that would just seem to sit all day and watch his house or him. At first he had been a little scared but he eventually built up the courage to find out who they were and had tracked them down with his senses of smell and hearing. The first one he had managed to find was an Anbu who had silverish hair that seemed to defy all laws of gravity and stand up to one side of his head, his face was covered by the usual Anbu mask that had been tailored to look like a dog so he couldn't tell who it was, but he did know that the Anbu was surprised that Naruto had found him. Ever since then Naruto had made it his morning mission to find whatever Jonin or Anbu was stationed at his house.

Naruto eventually met about six different Anbu and Jonin in total and he had made friends with two of them. He didn't know either of their names but he could tell them all apart from their scents and just usually greeted them with whatever animal their masks were made to resemble. At first the whole 'Find the Jonin/Anbu Game' had been a bad idea because some of the Anbu were a little kunai happy and it seemed that someone trying to jump at them and scare them was apparently one of those things that set them off. Wincing slightly at some of the 'close shaves', he proceeded to continue his tracking, while happily waving his tails around as he did so.

Yugao tried desperately to stifle her laugh as she watched the little hanyou bouncing around the place, sniffing the air and ground to follow her scent. He just looked like a cute house pet right now and she had to fight her inner urges to jump out off her spot in the tree and hug him to death. In the short time she had known him, she had quickly noticed huge changes in her personality. For one, she could easily tell that she laughed a lot more then she use to. As Naruto was just a constant source of amusement for her, as the curious little hanyou always got himself stuck in some sort of mess and she would always be around to have a good laugh at his expense. The second notable difference would be that she was generally more pleasant to be around, she couldn't figure out why but it seemed that just seeing the little ball of joy once a day would cause you to be in a happy mood all day.

Regardless of all the shit that the villagers constantly dealt him, he always found a way to remain happy, and that happiness would always rub off on those around him. She had some idea that this happiness of his was only recent as she had been told that before he had meet the Hyuga clan he was very lonely and quite miserable. Yugao felt a sort of connection with the little hanyou but could never understand why, the closest she could probably get was that he was an orphan just like her, but apart from that she had no idea. There was just something about him that pulled out her real thoughts and feelings, not just those she forced herself to have so she could survive being an Anbu. But besides all that, Yugao just thought he was plain cute.

Glancing back down at her little hanyou friend, she could tell by the way he was running that he had finally fully sorted out her scent and found her location. She smiled to herself at how little effort he had to put into it, his bloodline would certainly allow him to be a fine tracking ninja one day. She was also glad that she had erected a soundproof barrier jutsu around herself earlier or he would have found her quicker by listening for the sounds of her breath and heartbeat.

Naruto was currently quite confused. He had deciphered Yugao's scent and was quite sure where she was, but the confusing part was that he couldn't hear her. Naruto just shrugged before speeding off in the direction he could smell her from, which seemed to be coming from the closest tree to his house. Sinking his claws deep into truck he quickly and quietly made his way up. Peering through the branches he could see Yugao's mask facing slightly away from him on the other side of the tree. Slinking through the branches as silently as he could, Naruto waited until he was within 'pouncing' range before bending himself low and launching himself at Yugao.

"GOT YA YUGAO-CHAN!" Naruto yelled before latching himself onto the back of her head. Or what he thought was the back of her head. Because before he could even comprehend what was going on, the 'Yugao' that he was now holding onto exploded in a puff of smoke and turned into a log. Naruto stared at the wooden post he had latched onto with confusion, but before he could think on what just happened he felt two hands grab him from behind, virtually scaring the tails off him.

"Got ya Naruto-kun." The real Yugao said before giggling at his posture. It seemed that every time Naruto was scared suddenly the fur on his tails and ears would fluff up and stand on end. Naruto turned his head and gazed at the woman behind him with a disappointed frown. Yugao could easily tell she had upset him by disrupting his little game and scaring him instead, but that just made it all the more amusing. "Oh I'm sorry dear Naruto-kun, did I scare you?" Yugao asked laced with sarcasm.

Naruto was not amused that his little scaring game had been turned against him, but in a way that just made the game more entertaining by being made to compete against someone. Naruto just gave an annoyed smile in reply before trying to struggle free from her grasp, he wasn't doing to well however. He may be very strong for his age, but there was no way he could possible break free from the hold of an Anbu, even if she was only holding him under his arms.

Smirking at his amusing attempts at gaining freedom she just lifted him into the air and spun him around so he was facing her before rubbing his loss in a little. "You can't scare me and you can't break free. You can try all you want Naruto-kun, but there is no way you could break free. Just give up ok, I'm just too strong and smart for you." She said in a mocking tone, only to elicit an annoyed growl out of the little hanyou. She didn't know why, but she had gained a liking for stirring the little hanyou up whenever she saw him. His reactions to everything were always so amusing.

Naruto just pouted in response before continuing his attempts to gain freedom. This time wrapping his tails around her arms and trying to pull them out from under his armpits. This continued for a good ten minutes before he finally admitted defeat. "Fine Yugao-chan… you win… I give up." He admitted in a low tone. He hated losing, but he hated giving up even more.

Yugao just laughed at his cute little pouting face before giving him a quick hug and placing him on the ground. "Well Naruto-kun, that's one to me. Maybe you will have more luck next time." She said with a smile before picking her mask up off the log and putting it back on. "Well I have to go now, my shift was to guard you until you left for the Hyuga Compound. Which is where I'm assuming you are heading yes?"

Naruto quickly shook himself out of his upset mood and smiled at his friend before nodding his head vigorously. He may have lost at his own little game but that was no reason for him to be in a bad mood all day. After all, he had so many friends in his life so to him he had no reason to remain unhappy for more then a few seconds. "Yep I sure am! I'm going to visit Hitomi-san, Hiashi-san, Hizashi-san and Hisano-san today while Hinata-chan and Neji-san are being trained by the Hyuga elders. And then when there're finished their training we're are all going to play together!" Naruto explained excitably while waving his tails rapidly. Yugao just smiled and told him to have a good day and that she would probably see him when he got back before she prepared to head to the Hokage to receive her next mission.

As he waved her goodbye an idea popped into his head and he yelled for her to wait. Yugao turned back around to face the little hanyou and saw him shifting from one leg to the other, as if he wanted to ask something but was a little worried that he shouldn't. He looked very apprehensive and Yugao could tell that he was thinking on whether or not she would get angry at him for asking her whatever the question was. That was one thing she could never figure out about him, no matter on how many times she would reassure him that he could always speak his mind around her, he was always still worried that he might offend her. If anything he was just always worried that she wouldn't be his friend anymore. Walking back over to him, she knelt down in front of him before explaining that he could ask her whatever he wanted and didn't have to be worried that she would think any less of him.

Nodding slightly in thanks, Naruto breathed in deep before asking his question. "Um… Yugao-chan could… could you help me buy a present for Hinata-chan's birthday tomorrow? I would go by myself but… but I always get kicked out of the stores by the owners."

Yugao frowned at this, wondering if the hokage knew about that juicy little fact. If he doesn't well then she almost pities those hateful people when she gives him her latest report. Just looking at the little hanyou in front of her she could easily tell by his facial expression that it probably wasn't just being kicked out either. From all the reports she had read about how the village treated him chances are every time he entered any of the shops his life was in danger. However, even though she would love to help her little hanyou friend with purchasing a present for his best friend, she had missions to do once she reported back to the hokage.

"I'm really sorry Naruto-kun, but the hokage needs me to perform a few missions today, if I didn't have any I would have helped you in an instant." She said while rubbing his ears affectionately. Seeing the disheartened look on his face made her feel quite sad that she couldn't help him, and quickly came up with an idea to help lighten his mood. "You know though. I do know the best present that you could get her, and you wouldn't even have to leave your house." Naruto's ears perked up a little at this, quickly followed by a few excited movements of his tails. "You see Naruto-kun, no matter how expensive something is, or how wonderful it may be. A gift that is bought from a shop always lacks one thing: heart. A gift from the heart is the greatest gift you can ever give anyone."

Naruto's face screwed up in confusion at what Yugao had said and the movement of his tails changed to mimic his confusion. He understood that she meant that the best gift he could get Hinata was a gift from his heart. _'But what exactly is a gift from my heart?' _Naruto puzzled to himself. Yugao, sensing his confusion, decided to elaborate for him.

"A gift from the heart Naruto-kun, is something that has had a lot of time and effort put into it with only the thought of making that person happy. A gift from the heart is something that you make especially for that person and only for that person. A gift from the heart is something that comes from, as its name would suggest, your heart because it is something that shows just how much that person means to you. Does that help?" She finished her explanation with a grin, not that you could she it as her face was still hidden behind her mask.

Naruto sat thinking over her words for a good minute before nodding his head to display his understanding. "Thank you Yugao-chan. I have an idea what to make." He said before jumping up and giving her a hug. Yugao returned his hug before placing him back on the branch and disappearing in a swirl of leaves as she said goodbye. Naruto just waved in the direction he assumed she went, before he jumped out of the tree and headed towards his Hyuga friends.

At the Hyuga Compound

Hinata was struggling to find a way to stand, as all sorts of pain and exhaustion surged through her little body. She had been forced to train with her families master instructors since she had left her room that morning, which was three hours ago. Being only five meant that her body was barely equipped to handle that sort of punishment, let alone continue it. Regardless of the fact that she had started her training in the arts of the Gentle Fist style at the age of three, she still was easily worn out by their brutal training methods.

As she lay on the ground panting she glanced over to her mother and father who were watching her training from the sidelines. Her mother's eyes were filled with concern and worry as were her father's. However his eyes also held a few other emotions, some of them made her stomach churn a little. Within her father's eyes, she could see his love and concern for her, but she could also see disappointment. Not disappointment for her seeming weak in front of the elders and collapsing on the floor, no, he was disappointed in her for breaking her promise to him. A promise she made when she first started training with the elders two years ago.

Flashback

_Little Hinata stood before her father as he pored a cup of tea for both himself and her. She could tell that her father had something important to tell her and waited patiently while he drank his tea while also sipping the bitter tasting substance from her own cup. He had called her too him in the Hyuga's usual formal manner so she expected whatever he wanted to talk about to be highly important. She just hoped it wasn't something bad._

"_Hinata-chan." He spoke with a clear and commanding voice, instantly gaining his daughters attention. "Tomorrow is your third birthday, a highly important occasion for every Main Branch member." Hinata nodded her head slightly as she listened to her father, she had figured it probably had something to do with her birthday but couldn't imagine what. "That is because as of tomorrow, your training to be both the next leader of the Hyuga clan and a shinobi will begin." _

_Hinata's little eyes widened at that. She knew that she was one day suppose to be the next head of the clan and that she would eventually be trained for it and to be a shinobi, but she would never had imagined that she would start so soon. That was one of the problems of being only three years old in the Hyuga clan, it meant that you pretty much didn't have any grasp of Hyuga traditions but were expected to follow them anyway. "Aren't I too little to start training daddy?" She asked him cutely._

_Hiashi smiled a bit at his daughter's question. She was so sweet and innocent it almost brought tears to his eyes that the elder's would try to take away her kind attitude. He just prayed that she was strong enough to survive not only the harshness of their training but also their harsh words. He could recall numerous occasions where he himself had almost be turned into a nervous wreck from the horrible and degrading things they said to him and could only imagine on how much the elders had sharpened their skills of mental torture. _

"_I agree with you there daughter, you and every other child of the Main Branch is forced to endure training that is too harsh at much too young of an age. But despite my opinions on the matter it is Hyuga tradition that must be followed. However, I want you to know Hinata-chan, that despite whatever the elders say or how weak they make you feel or you think you are, in my eyes you will always be the strongest and greatest daughter a father could ever have." Hiashi couldn't help but laugh happily as his precious daughter jumped on him and hugged him with sobbing eyes. He always loved on how easily he could make her happy with only a few kind words. After she pulled back from giving him a hug his body language and voice once again turned serious before he spoke to her once more. "Although I do want you to promise me something. I want you to promise me that no matter how hard the training gets, or how many times you fail, or how much you feel like you are appearing weak before the clan, that you will always get back up and try again and never give up."_

_Hinata thought for a brief moment before smiling at her father and nodding her little head before trying to mimic her father's 'serious' voice. "I promise father that I won't ever give up."_

Flashback end

The promise she had made with her father that day replayed itself over and over again in her mind. She had promised him to never give up, and yet here she was lying on the ground, exhausted and praying for nothing more then to pass out so she wouldn't have to continue with this horrible training. She tried to stand again but her arms just gave way from under her almost knocking the breath out of her as she fell back to the ground.

"Get up you pathetic excuse for Hyuga!" The current trainer yelled at the snivelling wretch before him. Hinata just flinched and a few drops left her eyes as his words sunk deep into her weakening mind. "You are the weakest thing that I have ever laid my eyes on! You are an absolute disgrace to your father and clan!" The elder yelled the last part a little too loud for those around him and cause a few to cover their ears at the volume of his voice. To show his disgust at his weak pupil he kicked the ground near her, covering her in a small dust cloud.

Her tears now ran freely from her eyes as he began to walk away from her. His words hurt her deeply and she wished she had the energy to prove him wrong and stand up. But it was like he said, she was too weak. This training was too harsh for her, and there was nothing she wanted more then to just quit. She couldn't take the exhaustion and the insults any longer, regardless of how much she knew she was going to disappoint her father she just wanted to quit. However, just before she felt the sweet embrace of unconsciousness, a voice called to her, a voice she knew well and he wasn't happy.

Naruto on his way to the Hyuga compound had a pretty shitty day so far. He was once again reminded that everyone in the village hated his guts and it took a lot of determination to not run back to the safety of his home. His sensitive ears had picked up many hurtful conversations on how everyone wanted nothing more then to torture and kill him and that he was just a waste of space.

The last few weeks had been a wonderful time for Naruto as he made many new friends and finally found that he belonged in the world. With these new friends, the pain and loneliness Naruto felt virtually vanished and he was able to shrug off the hateful glares and hurtful insults, but that was only when he was around his friends. When he is by himself, the loneliness and all the memories of hurt return to his mind, making it easier for the villagers to hurt him emotionally again. But despite his troubled journey towards his goal, Naruto instantly felt relieved as he stepped through the Hyuga Compound gates and was greeted by his 'sister' before being led to the Hyuga training grounds where he was told everyone was waiting.

Along the way, while being carried piggy back by Tohru, Naruto explained his newly discovered dream. "Guess what Tohru-neechan?" He asked his sister excitably. Tohru had to giggle at her little brother's over-the-top excitement, whatever he asked her to guess had obviously added to his usual hyperactivity as he was squirming on her back more then Tora the Cat when being crushed in a hug from the Daimyo's wife.

"I have no idea otouto. What has got you so excited, please tell?" She asked him while trying to prevent him from accidentally scratching her while he bounced around on her back. At least he was able to hold himself on by wrapping his tails around her waist, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to use her hands to carefully shift his hands and feet away from her sides and shoulders whenever he moved. He may not ever mean too, but he was often just too hyper and bouncy to be careful with his ultra sharp claws.

"I finally found a way to get the villagers to stop hating me, and respect me! I'm gonna be Hokage!" He said with unfathomable amounts of determination in his voice while thrusting his fist into the air. Tohru stopped dead in her tracks at hearing his proclamation and turned her head around to look at her little brother. She was a little shocked that someone could have such a difficult goal but had to say she agreed with him that he would have respect as the Hokage, but sort of disagreed with that being his only reason for such a goal.

"It's a good goal in life Naruto-kun, but don't you think it's a bit of a selfish reason to want to be Hokage?" Tohru studied her little brother's face carefully after she spoke. She wanted to see if he could actually figure out what she meant by himself. At first his face looked slightly hurt, almost like he thought she was making fun of his new dream. But it soon changed to hold confusion.

Naruto screwed up his face and his ears drooped a bit as he tried to think on what his sister meant. Was his reason for wanting to be Hokage selfish? Sure he had only decided on his new dream that morning and probably could have put more thought into it, but there wasn't any other reason then wanting to be respected. Was wanting such a powerful position just to be respected wrong and selfish? Naruto's frown only increased as his thoughts intensified in complexity until finally a question entered his mind. "Tohru-neechan… what makes someone a good Hokage?"

Tohru mentally smiled at the hanyou on her back. She wasn't expecting him to understand what she meant and to a degree he didn't. But he also did propose a decent question that might put him on the right track. "Well Naruto-kun that is quiet a difficult question to answer but I'm sure you know a few of them right? A Kage is the most powerful ninja in the whole village and supports all those under him or her both physically and spiritually. They provide a light to help illuminate any darkness that may cloud anyone's mind and help protect them and council them. But do you know what imouto? A Kage could be the most strongest ninja in the whole world, and yet if they do not rule for the right reasons they could be defeated by the most lowly of genin. It doesn't matter how strong someone is, they can easily fall if they do not have true strength."

Tohru had to stop herself from laughing as she watched his eyes widen to that of dish plates in surprise. She could sense the questions growing within his mind and felt that it was probably a good idea to explain the whole thing to him instead of letting him figure it out on his own. "What makes someone truly strong? Well that question has been around almost as long as shinobi. If a person fights for himself or for selfish reasons they will always fall before those who fight for others and selfless reasons. You see Naruto-kun, the Hokage is the Hokage because he or she is the strongest person in the village because they fight for _everyone_ in the whole village. They love everyone and everything within the village they rule and would happily give up their lives to save what is precious to them. To fight for others, to protect others, to live for others that are precious too you will grant you true strength. That is what it means to be Hokage, Naruto-kun. It means that you are willing to put the whole village before yourself no matter what, not because you have to, but because you want to because everyone within it is precious to you." Tohru gave another smile after she finished her little lecture and turned her head back around and continued walking, leaving the now very still hanyou on her back to ponder on these new thoughts.

It was a good five minutes before Naruto finally spoke up again, and this time he had a better idea on why he should be Hokage. "Nee-chan… So if I want to be a good Hokage I should not want to be Hokage to be respected… but because I want to protect everyone in the village and everyone and everything that is precious to me?" His voice was much calmer then it usually was and held much of his new introspective thoughts. Tohru nodded and congratulated him on sorting out her little speech into something understandable. She also felt quite happy with herself, it seemed that teaching him the right morals were quite rewarding. But now she just had to check if his goal had now changed.

"So Naruto-kun, now that you know what it means to be Hokage, do you still want to be Hokage?" Naruto quieted down once again at that. His original ideas and plans were now dashed to nothing now that he learnt what it really meant to be Hokage. But was it really that bad? Naruto hated it whenever his friends were in trouble and would do anything to keep them safe, so was being Hokage to protect the whole village really that bad of an idea?

"I want the respect of the villagers… I don't want to be hurt anymore but… but there are other way's of gaining their respect and trust. If I work really really hard and eventually become the Hokage I think it would be better if I earnt their respect by showing them how much the village means to me and that I'm not a monster who wants to destroy it… so yes I still want to be Hokage. I want to be Hokage to protect everyone who is precious to me." Naruto declared to determination. And Tohru could have sworn as he spoke she saw a small flicker of flames within his eyes. She was about to congratulate him on his new dream but before she got the chance she heard him give off a deep growl before leaping off her back and running towards the Hyuga training grounds on all fours.

Naruto quickly arrived in a rather large open roof building with various training equipment set up around the edges and centre. The place seemed to get frequent use as the ground was quite upturned and rough, indicating many spars must have taken place here. However, it wasn't the building that had Naruto growling, no, it was the small form of his best friend curled up and crying on the dusty ground while a aged Hyuga standing above her and kicking a small cloud of dust on her. Naruto's fists clenched hard, and his claws pieced his skin slightly. He had seen a similar scene once before, this was the brutal training that his friend was put through on a daily basis. Although he had never seen her this exhausted before, she looked like she had put in her absolute all but it just wasn't enough for her trainer. Naruto's growl deepened as he saw the Hyuga elder begin to walk away from his best friend while cursing her for her weakness. Hitomi and Hiashi were quickly aware of Naruto's presence as they heard him growling from the entrance, but weren't quick enough to prevent him from interfering or explain the reason for such training.

"SHUT UP YOU OLD BASTARD! HINATA-CHAN ISN'T WEAK! SHE'S THE STRONGEST PERSON I KNOW, YOU JUST HAVE A POLE TOO FAR UP YOUR ARSE TO SEE THAT!" Hitomi's eyes widened at Naruto's course language, and even Hiashi looked surprised at his sudden outburst. Hinata's tears just increased as she felt the confidence he had in her tear at her mind for thinking of quitting. The elder however was beyond furious of how the little demon had spoken to him. However, unlike the previous elder who had had a small run in with Naruto, this one wasn't nearly as stupid to say anything out of line.

"How dare you speak to me with such disrespect _boy!_ Do you even know who you are talking to?" The elder shot back with a venomous tongue.

"Yes I do! I'm speaking to garbage that doesn't know how to be nice to anyone and probably doesn't have any friends because of the huge pole up his arse!" Although Naruto pretty much just repeated his previous insult, it seemed to still do as much damage as the elder's face began to turn bright red with uncontrolled rage. But before the elder could either strike back with words, or his fists as he was so considering, Naruto turned his hard gaze to his best friend and his face softened.

"Hinata-chan! Don't listen to this bastard! He just isn't a nice enough person to know on how strong you really are! Don't you give up and prove him right! Stand up Hinata-chan! Stand up!" Although to some it may have seemed like he was yelling at her insultingly. To those who knew him and especially Hinata, he was just trying to lift her confidence enough so she would stand.

But that was the problem, she couldn't stand. Even if she wanted too, she just didn't have the energy. She was weak just like the elders always told her she was and it hurt her deeply that she was not only going to break her promise to her father but she was also going to let down her best friend and throw the confidence he had in her back in his face. _'If only I wasn't so weak… then I could be the greatest daughter in the world for father… and a friend worthy of Naruto-kun's confidence…'_

"What do you mean she's not weak? I haven't seen a Hyuga from the Main Branch this pathetic in my whole life! She is worthless to us!" Naruto's growl turned slightly more vicious then it was before and he began clenching and unclenching his claws periodically, whilst the movement of his tails became even more erratic. Actions that worried Hitomi immensely, she could feel his anger rising to dangerous levels and the words of the Hokage rang clearly in her mind.

'_You see when a Hanyou becomes unbalanced in a particular emotion they create large amounts of demonic chakra so they can deal with whatever is causing this imbalance easier. In Naruto-kun's case his body will produce more but still not quite enough and he might subconsciously draw massive amounts from the Fox to compensate.' _

Hitomi just prayed that either the Hokage was wrong, or Naruto could keep his anger under more control.

"SHUT UP! Hinata-chan is not weak! She always tells me how hard she tries to live up to your stupid Hyuga standards but it never seems to be enough for you! But you know what? Whenever she tells me how hard she tries she also tells me that she will always keep trying! Someone who never gives up is never weak! AND HINATA-CHAN SAID THAT SHE NEVER GIVES UP!" The elder was furious beyond imaginable at the blatant disrespect he was receiving from this piece of trash in front of him. If he wasn't as old and experienced as he was he probably would have already killed the little demon. Although he was definitely starting to contemplate it, that is until a little movement behind him caught his attention.

Hinata was suffering from her friend's words like she had been torn apart by a million kunai. He had such confidence in her when she had virtually none. His words continued to repeat in her mind as well as remind her of her promise to her father. _'They both have so much faith and confidence in me… and all I'm doing is disappointing them… I promised my father that I wouldn't quit… and Naruto-kun believes that I will always keep trying… but right now all I want to do is just stop… I can't keep going… I'm sorry father… Naruto-kun…' _As her slightly lifted head slowly fell to the ground, images flashed in her mind. Images of her father's disappointment, images of her mother crying for her, images of the disgrace she would bring upon her family and most painfully images of her best friend's shocked and hurt face when he realised that she had lied to him about wanting to be strong for her family and not giving up.

As those images ended Hinata felt a warm flicker within her body. The warmth soon erupted into flames, flames of determination. She could never let those close to her down, they all believed in her, they all had faith in her but here she was quitting before their very eyes. _'No… I can't give up… I have to keep going… I have to stand up… for them! I can't let my family and best friend down! They all believe in me and I can't show them that I wasn't worth their confidence! I may not be strong or the most talented Hyuga, but I won't ever quit! I will prove them wrong about me!' _With a pain filled grunt, the little five year old moved her little hands to the ground and pulled her legs towards her. Shaking and trembling from both pain and exhaustion she pushed her head slowly up from the ground, further straining her already strained muscles. The pain was excruciating as she used her legs to help move her into a sitting position.

Everyone around her gasped when she lifted her face upwards to face them. It wasn't the fact that her face was dirtied and slightly grazed from the dirt that shocked them, it was the look in her eyes. Everyone around her could easily see that she was beyond exhausted and barely holding on to consciousness, but her eyes were filled with determination, determination to stand up once again, determination to never give up, determination to prove them all wrong.

Struggling against the soothing darkness of unconsciousness, the Hyuga heiress fought her own pain filled body with sheer determination and begun to stand. Her breathing was laboured and painful and her legs and arms seemed to have almost no feeling left in them, but it all didn't matter. She would stand up if it killed her. Getting up off the ground was the hardest part as her legs refused to lift her weight, but after a few attempts she soon found herself standing, not upright because she was slouched over, but standing none the less. Drawing in a deep breath, Hinata used the last pinch of her strength to straighten her stance and move into the Gentle Fist form. Glaring at the shocked elder in front of her she allowed a small smile to grace her face as she heard her family and best friend cheering for her. Still shacking from her exhaustion and feeling her body start to slow down, Hinata calmed herself down enough so that she could speak to her trainer before her body completely shut down on her. "I… I w-will never… quit."

As soon as her message was delivered her mind went blank and she didn't even feel her body fall, or the two tails of her best friend catching her to prevent her from hitting the ground. Within seconds, Hitomi and Hiashi were beside their daughter with proud tears in their eyes. She had passed one of the hardest tests ever given to a Main Branch member, a test based on proving whether or not you had the determination to be a good leader and never give up until the very end.

The elder behind them cleared his through to get their attention before delivering his personal opinion of the girl. "Hiashi-sama, Hitomi-sama. I have been training young Hinata-sama for six months now and have finally completed my evaluation of her skills." Hiashi turned his head to face the elder and nodded his head to signify that he was ready for the results. "Well Hiashi-sama as you already know your daughter is able to use the Byakugan. Even though she only recently was able to activate it where most Hyuga can activate theirs by the age of four, she seems fairly proficient at its use and shows great promise in it's telescopic ability. However, she is slightly lacking in fully utilizing its 3600 vision but her balance while utilizing it is perfect in every way. Her Gentle Fist is slightly below average and she seems to fear accidentally injuring others with it, a flaw that I expect corrected if she is to remain heiress. However, as was just demonstrated she seems to have a desire to prove herself, something that may eventually be of use. Overall, her talent is lacking however and she is not quite what I expected. _But_ I do have high beliefs that she will improve over time. So as a sum up of my evaluations, she doesn't quite have the expected skill but I do definitely believe she has great potential if her confidence in herself improves. Her determination to continue on is also very interesting and will definately help her in her future training. You have a very promising daughter Hiashi-sama, Hitomi-sama, and I expect great things from her." And with that he left. Leaving a pride filled Hiashi and Hitomi looked down at their unconscious daughter with tears in their eyes, while a little hanyou was glaring death daggers at him.

Hiashi gently lifted his daughter off Naruto's tails and held her close to him as he spoke. "You have done well my daughter… you have indeed made me very proud of you. You didn't give up." Hiashi turned to Naruto before thanking him for his encouragement and praise of Hinata earlier and for lifting her spirit enough for her confidence to raise enough for her to stand up. Naruto just gave a big smile before he bounded after both Hiashi and Hitomi as they walked back inside to put their daughter in her bed. Tohru had watched the entire event from the side of the training grounds and had yelled a goodbye to Naruto before she went back to work, she would play with him and Hinata later when Hinata had recovered.


	11. Chapter 10: A Promised Birthday Party

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Well here's the next weekly chapter. This particular chapter I found a little slow... but hey, sometimes things like that can't be fixed. Anyway, after this chapter their is only four more and then their will be the 'time-skip' that everyone is asking for.

On a more retarded note I fixed the poll and now it displays properly on my profile page for anyone who wants to vote. I still can't believe I made such a novice mistake, but anywho on with the latest chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot line in this Fanfiction.

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Chapter 10: A Promised Birthday Party

Naruto was awoken from a peaceful nights sleep by the sound of trumpets, cheering, fireworks and other common celebration sounds. Growling in annoyance at being woken up after what seemed like only two hours of sleep, he turned over and tried to cover his ears with his pillow. However, his ears were far too sensitive and any attempt he made at lessening his heightened sense failed horribly. Growling once again Naruto kicked his covers off before heading to his kitchen for his morning ramen.

Naruto groaned as he dragged his tired body from his bedroom, with his tails dragging on the floor the whole way. He had been up almost all night creating Hinata's present and it was almost finished. All he had to do was to get some more red colour crayons to finish it off and he would be all set. Naruto wasn't too sure where he got the full idea of it from but the bases of it were from something his best friend had said to him yesterday when she woke up.

Flashback

_Naruto had been sitting by his friend's bedside for just over an hour and a half and he was getting extremely bored. Sure he wanted to be there when his friend woke up and all, but he really didn't like waiting as he just had far too much energy to burn all the time. Desperately looking around his best friend's room for something to occupy himself with, his gaze soon fell on a small calendar. Bounding over to the colourful object Naruto's attention was immediately grabbed by a certain day that had been coloured in with all sorts of colours and smiley faces. Hinata's Birthday._

"_OH! That's right, I still have to think of something to get her!" He declared rather loudly. His enthusiasm soon wore off however, when he remembered Yugao's words. "But I don't know anything that I can give her from my heart… sure I can make something, but I don't even know what Hinata-chan likes…" Slumping his shoulders Naruto sighed in frustration as he desperately tried to think of something, anything, that he could make for Hinata. _

_Sitting back down on the chair beside Hinata's bed Naruto began to think over every possible gift he could make. _

_As Hinata's consciousness slowly returned to her, she realised that she was no longer in the family's dojo and her heart sank. Her whole body felt tired and drained and it was a struggle to even open her eyes. Although, in a way, she didn't want to open them. The last thing she remembered was falling unconscious in front of the elder, her parents and her best friend. 'Why am I so weak?'_

_Sensing her stir, Naruto instantly bounded onto her bed. "Hinata-chan! Your awake!" Not realising that anyone was in the room with her, Hinata jumped a good foot in the air when Naruto just appeared on her bed, bouncing around and shouting. Within seconds of his shouts Hiashi and Hitomi raced into their daughter's room. Hinata felt her heart sink even further, she really didn't want to have to see her parents and Naruto so soon._

_After Hitomi quieted Naruto by picking him off the bed by his scruff, she sat on the side of her daughter's bed and lovingly grabbed her little hand. Hinata looked up at her mother with teary eyes before trying to hide her shame by pulling herself further under the blankets, an action that worried Hitomi and Hiashi greatly. "What is wrong Hinata-chan, why are you crying?" Hitomi asked her daughter._

_Hinata's only response was a small sniff as her tears increased and fell from her eyes, soaking her lavender silk sheets. Hitomi, Hiashi and Naruto exchanged glances of concern and worry with each other before all three gathered on various parts of Hinata's bed. None of them knew anything about why Hinata was so upset, so they could do nothing but sit with her until her tears slowed enough so she could tell them when she was ready._

_Naruto sat on the pillow next to his friend's covered head feeling almost as horrible as she was. It was heartbreaking seeing his friend so upset and what made matters worse was that he could do nothing to help her. Well he assumed that there was nothing he could do, but Naruto wasn't known as someone to give up easily, besides what sort of friend would he be if he didn't try and cheer her up. Intent on cheering his best friend up, Naruto shoved his head under the covers and half crawled under, leaving only his bottom and two swirling tails outside._

_Hiashi and Hitomi waited patiently as the two children conversed under the covers, and was a little shocked when Hinata soon pulled the covers down from her head and slightly sat up, quickly followed by Naruto. Hinata looked up at her mother, then at her father and spoke with her ever nervous voice. "Y-You… Your n-not angry at m-me? I-I didn't fail you b-both?"_

_Hiashi frowned at her question and for a second after seeing his reaction Hinata thought that she shouldn't have asked. "Why do you ask such a thing my daughter? You know that I wouldn't be angry at you for proving to the clan that you are a very strong young girl." Hinata gasp slightly as she heard his response and her eyes widened slightly as confusion wrecked havoc amongst her rational thoughts on what he meant. Luckily Hiashi seemed to understand her confusion and elaborated. "That was a test Hinata-chan, a test to see how far you were willing to go before you gave up. The elder was harsh and degrading on purpose to see how far you would push yourself. Working your body into exhaustion like you did and _then_ still managing to stand up and say that you would never give up, proved to the whole Hyuga clan that you are a strong person. For a five year old to pass that test so soon is very rare indeed, I am very proud of you my daughter." Hiashi leaned over as he spoke and embraced his precious daughter as she again cried, but this time from joy. _

_Hinata hadn't fully understood what her friend had meant when he spoke to her before to come out from under the covers. But upon fully realising what her father had told her she did understand, she had proved the elders wrong, she had proved to them that she wasn't worthless and that she would never give up. Regardless of whether or not she was still not as talented as she should be, at least everyone knew that she would never stop trying. This thought left her a little choked up and when her father released her, she pulled back and nervously started poking her fingers together. A habit she was recently developing whenever she was nervous. _

_Glancing over to her grinning best friend next to her, a small blush appeared on her face as she tried desperately to think of a way to thank him for his encouragement earlier. It was thanks to him that she was able to build up her courage enough to stand. Had he not been there she might very well have given up. "It… it w-was only because of you N-Naruto-kun… i-if you hadn't been there a-and said all those really n-nice things then… then I w-would have given up. You really a-are the best f-friend I could ever have." _

_The little hanyou's face screwed up in confusion at her words, but relaxed when he realised what she was saying. Or what he thought she was saying, he did however grin from ear to ear when he heard her last sentence. "Hinata-chan. I may have told that mean elder to shut his mouth and that you were not weak. But it was you that stood up not me, you really are strong. You just have to believe in yourself more ok?" Hinata's smile almost mimicked Naruto's as she mumbled a small thank you under her breath before giving him a hug. Only to jump back in surprise as she heard a familiar click, indicating there little moment of friendship was now caught on camera._

Flashback end

Naruto allowed a few tears to drop from his eyes when he replayed Hinata's words over and over again in his mind.

"_You really a-are the best f-friend I could ever have."_

It was that sentence that originally sparked the idea for Hinata's present. And also a small flicker of warmth in Naruto's heart, a warmth caused by the knowledge that he was truly accepted. Wiping the tears from his face with one of his tails, Naruto proceeded to complete his usual morning routine before leaping out of his window. He needed to get his present finished as quickly as possible because he also needed to clean up his apartment before they all arrived. He couldn't possibly have a party for his best friend in a messy house could he? As he landed on the ground and begun scanning around for any possible threats Naruto found himself wondering how Hinata was coping. She did say that they celebrated birthdays in the Hyuga clan but she said that they were _very _formal and really boring. "Oh well! It doesn't matter how boring it is, she will have lots of fun at the party I planned!" He shouted excitably before charging off into the streets of Konoha, maybe he could even check out what this festival that had woken him up was all about.

At the Hyuga Compound

Hinata was currently sitting very nervously between her mother and father as the entire Hyuga clan filed into the largest hall in the entire compound. She really hated these types of gatherings and would have done pretty much anything to get out of it. Alas her attempts would have been useless, as this was her birthday celebration and so the formal lunch was a standard tradition. The hall was the classic Hyuga white with black and white marble tiles and three large golden chandeliers hanging at regular intervals from the roof. Two long tables were set up on either side of the hall, one for the main family and one for the branch family. The tables were covered with white cloths and at each seat there was three different china plates, four types of silver spoons, four silver forks, two silver knifes and two different sized chopsticks. Four poster candle sticks were also placed every three seats or so. Hinata had been instructed by her mother on how to correctly use each and every piece of utensil set up for her, but found it kind of silly. Sure she could understand the use of three of the different spoons and two of the forks, but the rest just seemed to be there to be flashy.

As the final members of the Hyuga clan sat down in their assigned seat, all eight of the Hyuga elders stood up to start the formal birthday speeches. "Today, we gather here to congratulate our heiress Hinata Hyuga on her fifth birthday. All of the elder's including myself have watched her training progress and are all in agreement that she will become a very powerful and influential head of the clan when the time comes for her to lead us. But for now I propose a toast" he said while lifting up his wine glass. "To the continual greatness of the Hyuga Clan and all that have led us," He said while shifting his gaze to a picture of Hiashi's father. "and for all that will." He said while bowing his head slightly to Hinata.

As both branches drank from there cups to the toast, Hinata just sat in her chair shivering slightly from embarrassment. She is a shy person even when there is only a few people around her, but when the whole clan's attention was on her it just made her want to shrink into her chair or mother's dress and cry. Her nervousness only increased when they began to bring out everyone's meals. She could practically feel every Hyuga member's gaze on her, watching, waiting for her to make a mistake or embarrass herself while she ate. She hated the feeling, and wanted nothing more then to just get up and leave. But she knew that she could never do such a thing as it would bring shame upon her and her parents.

The only things that kept her in her spot and carry through with all the customs was the fact that her father, mother, uncle, aunty, and cousin all sent her sympathetic and yet encouraging glances and the excitement of the party that Naruto was preparing for her. She just couldn't wait to see what he had done and knowing her best friend probably still doing as he always liked to go overboard with everything he did. She could barely keep her excitement within her as she imagined all the colourful balloons and streamers hung from every corner in his little house. She was brought out of her excitement when a branch member placed a silver tray in front of her and lifted the lid off. But to her's, the branch member's and her parent's surprise, instead of finding the traditional squid and red bean soup, they found a large bowl of shrimp ramen with a note next to it. Quickly overcoming her shock, the Hyuga heiress pulled the tray closer so the elders wouldn't see it and read the note.

_Happy Birthday Hinata-chan!_

_I just thought I would wish you a Happy Birthday and send you a bowl of ramen because I know how much you hate that yucky squid soup. I'm sorry that I couldn't come to your lunch party thing but I probably wouldn't have been allowed and I am very busy getting my house ready for your party tonight. I can't wait until you come over I'm sure that you will love it. Oh and I have a few tricks ready for that mean elder too, they should teach him not to be so mean and it will be heaps fun._

_From your best friend Naruto_

_P.S. Tohru-neechan says Hi and Happy Birthday too. She won't be at your lunch either because she is helping me decorate._

Hinata gave a small giggle before handing the note to her curious father and looking around. And sure enough she couldn't spot Tohru anywhere. She giggled once again before digging into her ramen. She may not like it anywhere near as much as her best friend did but it was certainly way better then the squid soup.

After Hiashi finished reading the little note he gave a small smirk before letting his wife read it. "It seems that Naruto-kun is becoming quite the trickster. I have no idea how he managed to switch your food Hinata-chan, but I'm sure you don't mind right?" The only response he got from his daughter was a small nod in between small mouthfuls of noodles. She seemed either more distracted by her own thoughts or the ramen to give him a more thought out response. "The only thing that worries me is what he has planned for Yoshiro." He said as he glanced to his wife who nodded her head in agreement. They had both started to notice that Naruto had an uncanny ability to create the most ridiculous pranks without ever being caught.

"But that is part of being part Kitsune. As almost all Kitsune's, especially non-Inari, are virtually obsessed with pulling overly extravagant but harmless pranks." Hitomi said with an equally worried voice while sipping her squid soup, silently wishing that Naruto had switched her soup with a bowl of ramen as well as her daughters. It wasn't long however before their worries were answered. Because if one were to listen very carefully, they would hear an almost silent hiss at the end of the table, indicating the start of Naruto's prank.

With Naruto and Tohru

Naruto had long since finished his present for Hinata and was currently swinging from the various streamers he had set up around his house. Tohru had to admit that it was quite the sight seeing a small child with twin tails swinging from one side of the house to the other by multicoloured streamers. _'At least he's doing something productive at the same time I guess.' _She thought to herself as Naruto used his swinging streamers to attach more streamers whenever he came to a wall or the roof.

Tohru had to admit that she had been having an absolute blast with her little brother and the party hadn't even started yet. She had found him trying to buy some red crayons from a children's store at the markets earlier and after giving the shop owner a good pounding for refusing service to her little brother, she had offered to assist him with preparing for Hinata's birthday party and had been with him all morning purchasing all the things they needed. Along the way, he explained to her about the festival that was currently on and what it was all about. Apparently the Village Hidden in the Clouds was negotiating a peace treaty with Konoha. Although at first Tohru didn't believe him because she wasn't sure where he got all this information, but quickly changed her opinion when she remembered his super acute sense of hearing and assumed that he was currently listening to all the conversations of the villagers. If the continual slight flicking of his ears was any indication.

However, ever since they got back to his place everything that they had done had just been one drama after another. The first accident was when Naruto tried making some punch, he ended up almost drowning when he got frustrated trying to open a bottle of soft drink and had used his teeth. Tohru gave a small giggle as she recalled his face as the soft drink exploded and blew its contents out his nose and mouth. If only he had known that he had accidentally shaken it up before hand, then he would have spared himself from the vicious onslaught. But then Tohru wouldn't have almost wet herself from laughing at him so hard. The second accident was when Naruto decided that he would be the one to blow up the balloons. Out of twenty balloons that Naruto tried to inflate, only two weren't burst by his clawed hands. The third was when Naruto tried to bake a cake in the microwave despite how many times Tohru had tried to persuade him otherwise. Which ended up exploding and blowing up his microwave, virtually covering the entire room in cake mix.

Those were only three of the mild ones, one of the more severe ones had even broken a bag of flour and caused the whole room to be covered in flour. This was what Tohru was currently cleaning the last of, while Naruto continued to swing around the room hanging streamers. She was brought out of her little giggle feast at the memories of all the stupid things that her brother had done when she heard a loud thud follow by an 'Ouch'.

Naruto walked back into the kitchen rubbing his sore head after colliding with the hallway roof. Finally sick of injuring himself and his poor house he just decided to let Tohru give him the orders. "Nee-chan, I've had enough. Can you think of something I can do that either won't hurt me, blow up, or break my house?" He said with his ears and tails drooped down. Tohru had to try really hard not to laugh at his clearly frustrated voice, but managed to hold it down long enough to give him a small job.

"Well you could fill all the bowls on the table with all the different lollies and chips if you want?" Naruto thought about it for a second, trying to imagine if anything could go wrong before his ears shot back up and he excitable ran up to the bench and begun to collect all the bags of goodies, holding them with his hands and two tails. Tohru found it quite amusing how he managed to wrap the tips of his tails around objects and carry them. _'Hmm… __I wonder if he would be able to use them to use and carry ninja equipment one day… the ability to hold mo__re then two kunai and use them could be incredibly useful.' _She mused to herself whilst watching Naruto slash each bag open with his claws. Even though some of his animalistic movements and behaviours had changed since first meeting the Hyuga's, Tohru could tell that some, like often walking on all fours and using his teeth and claws to open things, would always remain.

Just as Tohru had finished sweeping up the last of the flour, she noticed Naruto's ears twitch slightly, followed by a few sniffs. Naruto turned to her with a big smile before speeding off to his front door. "Yugao-chan's here!"

At the Hyuga Compound

Hinata Hyuga was both emotionally and physically drained. She thought that she was exhausted yesterday when she was put through that 'test' training, but that had nothing on today. The lunch 'party' had ended a while ago and most everyone had left, but right now she was being forced to endure the elder's seemingly endless lectures of what was and what was not expected of a Hyuga heiress. Most of it was the basic stuff on how to lead and be presentable, but some of it was just too heavy for a five year old to comprehend. Not that they seemed to care.

As they continued their lectures and they seemingly got closer to her seat by seat she begun to feel very subconscious under their gaze and started to feel a little light-headed. She also had begun to nervously poke her fingers together whilst her breathing started to get slightly heavier then normal. Noting her daughters growing nervousness, Hitomi placed a comforting hand on Hinata's shoulder before deciding to interject.

"I think that is enough information for my daughter to digest for now honoured elders. I believe that she should be allowed to rest for a while; she has had a long day." The elders silenced themselves almost instantly before glancing at Hitomi and giving a slight nod to indicate their acceptance of the request. Hiashi mentally sighed as they slowly got up and left, he too was slowly growing tired of their endless lectures on Hyuga etiquette. He had it drilled into him when he was younger and certainly didn't wish to be forced to endure it again, although he would endure it to stay with his daughter as emotional support.

Before the last four elders left however, Hiroshino, the eldest of the elders turned with inquisitive eyes towards Hiashi, Hitomi and Hinata. "I have a question for you Hiashi-sama, if you would be so kind to answer?" Hiashi was sceptical on what the aged man would want, but none the less nodded his head. "I have recently received information that you have been communicating with a certain hanyou, goes by the name Naruto Uzumaki am I correct?" Hiashi's eye's widened at this, it wasn't the fact that the elders had found out about his meetings with Naruto as he never did try to hide that fact. It was more Hiroshino's referral to Naruto as a hanyou. _'Hinata-chan has not yet been told of the fox sealed within Naruto, nor the fact that he had become a half-demon during the sealing process! He is virtually breaking the Third Hokage's laws! But, at the same time by referring to him as a hanyou he is not breaking them.'_ Hiashi glanced worryingly at his daughter who was currently looking at him with a confused face and saw the elder's smile widened. _'What are you up to Hiroshino?'_

"If you want to know Elder Hiroshino then yes, I have been having weekly clan meetings with Naruto Uzumaki. And I assume you wish to know why?" Waiting for Hiroshino to nod his head Hiashi continued. "As you know Naruto Uzumaki possesses a _bloodline _-" Hiashi narrowed his eyes to reinforce the way Naruto's case was suppose to be handled, an action that just seemed to amuse Hiroshino. "that gives him the physical features of an animal, including all abilities and to some degree instincts of that animal. His being a Kitsune. I believe that Naruto Uzumaki will eventually become quite a powerful and influential ally when he grows and is trained as a ninja of Konoha, so I have initiated a clan treaty with him to form a bond between our clan's that will hopefully grow and strengthen with time." Hiashi could see Hiroshino slightly consider his words and decided to play his ultimate card, the 'Empower and Egotise the almighty Hyuga Clan' card as his brother had so tactlessly dubbed.

"And I also believe that having Konoha's most _potentially_ powerful ninja as an ally to only the Hyuga Clan would not only increase our already superior power, but would also decrease the power of the other clan's such as the Uchiha's as they would all not be able to acquire his aid and power." Hiashi mentally laughed as he saw the elder's grin widen to one that could rival Naruto's. No matter how outrageous anything was, if it increased either the Hyuga clans power or prestige then he could always convince the elders to allow it.

Hiroshino hadn't considered the idea of having Naruto as an ally, and he had to admit it sounded like a very profitable idea for the Hyuga clan. Acquiring the only hanyou that had been in Konoha for over 75 years as well as denying the other clans use of him would be an undeniable asset for the Hyuga clan. And he was old enough to remember the last hanyou Konoha possessed, as she was one of its greatest warriors and was one of the reasons that Konoha had won some of the major battles in the first Great Ninja War. But he needed a way to control the little hanyou, pledging allegiance was one thing, but forcing allegiance and loyalty was much safer and of far greater benefit. Nodding his head slowly in agreement, Hiroshino gave a small chuckle before speaking. "Well done Hiashi-sama, you truly are worth your position as clan head. I also now believe that Naruto Uzumaki will be of great value to the Hyuga clan, _but_ I want some limitations set on him."

Hiashi raised one of his eyebrows slightly at the word _limitations_, that word just screamed curse seal to him, but never the less nodded his head for Hiroshino to continue. "I want to make it forbidden for any Hyuga to instruct him on any of the ninja arts including our own, I also want a record kept of his time spent within the Hyuga compound and I want to restrict him from any _important_ archives of our family. I also demand that the Caged Bird Seal be branded upon him, to enforce his loyalty to us. I also demand that he is kept away from young Hinata-sama here, his friendship with her is corrupting and I do not wish some of his… _animalistic_ behaviours to rub off on her. She is the next heir after all." He said while glancing at said heiress.

This did not sit well with either of the Hyuga leaders. Both Hitomi and Hiashi clearly displayed their disagreement and anger with his two last requests in their very un-Hyuga like frowns. Hinata herself was on the verge of crying, hearing that one of the elders wanted her to end her friendship with her best friend and brand him was definitely not one of the things she wanted to hear on her birthday. It was Hiashi who composed himself first and spoke back, which was probably for the best because his wife looked a lot angrier then he was. Almost to the level where she probably could cause serious bodily harm to the elder.

"You may advise me on how to run the Hyuga clan Hiroshino, but I will tell you now that you may never see it fit to advise me on how to raise my daughter. She is training to one day take over as clan head, but that doesn't mean she can't have outside friends. I also DO NOT EVER WANT TO HEAR YOU GIVING ORDERS ON BRANDING SOMEONE WHO ISN'T EVEN PART OF THE HYUGA CLAN! MY GOAL WAS TO FORM A CLAN TREATY WITH HIM, NOT SUBJUGATE HIM TO SLAVERY! _Good day_ Hiroshino." The good day in Hiashi's sentence sounded more like a threat if he didn't leave then anything.

This sort of disrespect was the one main reason Hiroshino believe Hiashi to be unfit to lead the clan, the other was his slowly more obvious kindness. And to Hiroshino and all the other elders of the Hyuga clan, kindness was weakness. He may act at times like he held good terms with the Hyuga leader, but in his own mind he wanted nothing more then to replace the little fool. Gritting his teeth slightly at having one of his demands thrown back in his face, Hiroshino nodded his head slightly seemingly agreeing with Hiashi's statement before excusing himself and walking out of the hall, leaving behind the now upset birthday girl and her two parents to try and cheer her up. If anyone were to listen carefully when he left the room however, they might have heard him utter one last sentence. "Do as you will with your daughter Hiashi… You won't have her for very much longer."

With Naruto, Tohru and Yugao

Yugao and Tohru were currently sitting at Naruto's little table drinking green tea while said hanyou continued to speed from one end of his house to the other, checking for anything that was out of place or could use improvement. He had never planned a party before this one and wanted to make sure that everything was perfect.

He was currently dressed in a nice blue shirt with a few orange strips around the sleeves and neck and had dark navy pants on. He had to admit that it was a little dark for his taste but it looked nice according to his sister. His hair was as messy as usual as it just didn't ever decide to go in just one direction. But he did make sure that he had given his tails and ears a good shampoo and brush to make sure they looked nice. His sister had actually commented on his tails, saying that they looked quite shiny today so it had obviously worked.

Said big sister had opted for a brighter set of clothing and had decided to wear a bright red kimono with a yellow sash and white lining. She had pulled her hair out of her usual half ponytail and had given a small curl to the ends of it. To top the bright outfit off, she had wore plain white high-heel shoes to go with the lining and had place a small silver butterfly clip in her hair. Overall, the complete opposite image of what is standard Hyuga dress.

Yugao moved her head from side to side as her eyes tracked Naruto's rapid movement. She just couldn't believe that after everything he had done that day that he still had energy to move, let alone run around like a Mist Ninja during the rain season. "Tohru-san, how is it possible that he is still running around? I knew he had a lot of energy but this is just insane!" Tohru just smiled at the unmasked Anbu in front of her before taking another sip of her tea. Yugao thought for a second that the Hyuga friend of Naruto's had ignored her question, but was proven wrong when Tohru reached out suddenly and grabbed Naruto by the scruff of his neck as he sped past. Yugao almost chocked on her tea when Tohru lifted the little hanyou off the ground and turned him around to face her. She had never seen such a hilarious face in all her life, and could do nothing to prevent herself from falling off her chair in laughter. Which for an Anbu, regardless on how new they may be, was an utterly embarrassing lack of self control.

Waiting patiently for the purple haired Anbu to recover from her fits of laughter, Tohru felt small pulses at the back of Naruto's neck where she was holding him, clearly indicating he was trying to move but being picked up by his scruff always seemed to immobilise him. Something Tohru could tell irritated him immensely. She giggled to herself as she felt the pulses continue, but as long as she held him by the scruff he would never be able to move. _'Being a big sister is so much fun!'_ Tohru mused to herself.

As soon as Yugao was able to sit up right and had apologised for her lack of self control, Tohru held out her arm further towards Yugao before explaining her reason for grabbing hold of him. "Well the easiest way to explain why he has so much stamina is his charka level, it is simply staggering. You're an Anbu right Yugao-san? So that means that you should know a jutsu to measure his charka capacity? Try it on Naruto-kun and you will see what I mean." Nodding her head in agreement, Yugao flashed through a small set of handsigns before placing one hand on Naruto's forehead and announcing her jutsu.

"Ninja Art: Charka Calculation Jutsu!" A small blue glow appeared around her hand, before slowly moving over Naruto's forehead and eventually engulfing the little hanyou's entire body. Pulses of charka could be felt emitting from Naruto's body in small waves as his charka capacity was being measure. To Naruto it was like a small warmth throughout his body was being squished then stretched then squished again, an odd but not disliked feeling. To Yugao however it was much different. To her it felt like she was being slammed into by an outburst dam that had been full to the brim then had all of its floodgates opened at once. It was calm and gentle flowing charka in outrageously huge proportions squeezed into a small little cardboard box that just didn't seem to burst no matter the pressure, Yugao had never felt anything like it. But there was another thing that Yugao had never felt before, even though his chakra was calm but at the same time gushing, normal chakra was suppose to feel cold where his did not. Naruto's charka was hot, hot enough to burn. _'It is just like Tohru-san said, his charka capacity is staggering. For a five year old to have far more charka then even me is just incomprehensible… It must be because his charka is constantly drawing out small reserves of youkai charka from the fox to keep himself alive. He will definitely become a huge asset to Konoha when he becomes a shinobi. I just wonder how he's going to ever learn to have any amount of charka control at all… not that I think he will need it, he has enough charka to afford wastage.'_

Yugao withdrew her now shaking hand off of Naruto's head and inspected it. To the normal eye it would just look like her hand was slightly dirty, but to the trained eye of a ninja one could easily pick up signs of chakra burns. Naruto, after being released from Tohru's hold and recovering from the weird warm feeling caused by his chakra being measured, looked down at his friend's hand and whimpered slightly. He couldn't tell exactly what happened to Yugao's hand, but he knew it was from touching him and that it hurt, if the wincing expression Yugao had said anything.

"I'm sorry Yugao-chan… I didn't mean too…" He said in an upset tone while his ears lowered themselves. Yugao could see that the little hanyou in front of her was on the verge of crying and quickly tried to cover up the real reason by saying that she just put to much charka into her jutsu and the extra chakra burnt her hand. Yugao however, didn't even have a chance to blink before Naruto had pounced on her hand.

His sudden movement startled her slightly, but not nearly as much as his hold of her hand. He had one clawed hand gently hold either side of her hand in a cup fashion and had wrapped one of his tails gently around her wrist as a cushion. He slightly tightened his grip of her wrist and with his two thumbs gently massaged the palm of her hand. Yugao had not often been held so gently, especially by such a young boy and found that the pain from the burns was slowly ebbing away. However, the feeling of relaxation she was starting to feel quickly changed to that of embarrassment when she felt him slowly begin to lick the burns on her palm.

Grossed out and still embarrassed by such a forward action she tried to pull her hand away, but found that the grip the little hanyou's tail had on her wrist just increased slightly. She was about to yell at him to release her or force his grip off her, that is until she felt the stinging in her hand dissolve into virtually nothing, quickly followed by a small hissing sound as the slightly burnt flesh faded into nothing and was replaced by perfectly healthy skin. As soon as the hissing sound faded Naruto released his friend's hand and took two steps back before smiling.

"Does that feel better Yugao-chan!" he asked her excitably while his grin just continued to increase. His ears had now perked back up and his tails were once again moving around in random patterns. Yugao sat on her chair staring at her hand in shock, she just couldn't believe that her chakra burns had been healed simply by Naruto licking them. She had heard that he possessed incredible healing powers and had once seen a wound on him close over and heal completely in under a minute, but she would never had guessed that he could pass on the healing ability through his saliva. She looked up from her hand to face him, but before she could even process a question to ask him, the little hanyou had already sped in the direction of his front door. She could easily tell by the excited movements his tails made, that the guest of honour was soon to arrive.

As Naruto reached his door he quickly turned his outside and inside lights off and told his friend and sister to hide on either side of the door. When asked why, he simply told them that he wanted everyone to wait until the door was open then jump out with a surprise 'Happy Birthday'. Yugao thought it slightly pointless but complied anyway, knowing how much making this party for Hinata meant to her young hanyou friend. She found the more time she spent with Naruto the more like an actually fun loving teenager instead of an emotionless Anbu, like see was being trained to be, she became. Tohru however thought it a wonderful idea, and also thought it would be great to see if she could startle her best friend and her best friend's husband as she had never been able to crept up behind either of them before. However, she found herself slightly disappointed that her little brother hadn't thought of something more creative. Recently he had been playing pranks on almost everyone and she loved every single one of them.

Waiting in complete silence and darkness, one child and two teens waited, ready to pounce and frighten their unsuspecting prey. Although the two teens had no idea when their targets would arrive, they both knew they could rely on Naruto's super sensitive hearing and sense of smell to inform them. If not Tohru could always use her Byakugan.

With Hinata and her family

Hinata was currently walking beside her mother and holding on tightly to her dress, all the while nervously fiddling with her fingers. She originally had been really excited about the party her best friend was throwing for her, but that had changed the closer she got to his house. The problem was she didn't know how to act, sure she had been able to let loose a little whenever she and Naruto played together but this was different, this was a party and having never been to a party meant she didn't know how to act at one. It was one of the many things the elders had drilled into her little head, that a Hyuga should always be graceful, punctual, polite and perfect. But this was different, she wasn't suppose to be formal and super polite so all the lessons they forced her to learn wouldn't help in such a situation. She just didn't know what to do.

Hitomi, sensing Hinata's obviously growing nervousness, reached down and comfortingly held her daughter's hand that had clutched onto her dress. "Don't worry Hinata-chan, at a party nothing is expected of anybody. If you're worried on how to act then simply just be yourself." Hinata looked at her mother as she spoke then faced towards the ground as she thought about it. She usually acted like herself when she was playing with her best friend because he was always so much fun and considering the party was made by him, chances are it would be just as fun and therefore she could act like herself. However, despite the small confidence boost the idea gave her, she still was nervous. _'It's just Naruto-kun's house. Why am I so scared and shaking? It's just a party and it's for me, so why am I so scared… I'm too weak…'_

Hitomi had to stop herself from laughing as she watched her daughter mentally try to calm herself down. As a mother she probably shouldn't find such things funny, but couldn't quite help herself, her daughters little face was just too funny and cute when she did that.

After that little scene there pretty much was not much more talking between the six Hyugas, unless of course if you count the numerous attempts Hizashi made at insulting his brothers 'boring stick like behaviour' but was silenced each time when Hisano glared at him evilly. Between these odd little interactions between the family and Hinata's still growing nervousness, it was no surprise when the littlest of the gathered Hyuga's gave a small 'eep' of surprise when they had already arrived at Naruto's house.

Looking down at her daughter's shaking form; Hiashi walked up and placed a hand on her shoulder. Because of her heightened nervousness she jumped a little at his touch. After composing herself she turned to face her father. "It will be aright, you will see. Just go knock on Naruto-kun's door and as soon as you enter his house you will see that everything will be fine." Hinata nodded, acknowledging his words, before slowly walking towards the door of Naruto's house, completely unaware of the viciously evil grin increasing on the other side of the door with every step she took.

Hinata knocked on her friend's door gently and waited patiently for him to answer, but when no answer came she nervously tapped on his door again, this time a little louder. When still no answer came she turned worryingly to her mother whom insisted she just try opening the door as Naruto was probably somewhere in his room and couldn't hear. Nodding in response, the young Hyuga heiress slowly turned the door nob and pushed gently which, to her surprise as she was fully expecting it to be locked, caused the door to slowly open. However, as the door fully opened, instead of seeing a bright and well lit house interior like she was use to, she was greeted with pitch black darkness. Curious as to where her friend was she took one step into his lightless house, which is sadly exactly what her friend had been waiting for.

On an unspoken signal three figures jumped out from either side of the door, almost causing the littlest Hyuga to wet herself as they all yelled in unison.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HINATA-CHAN!" Although the greeting was a little one sided as Naruto's voice seemed to completely overpower Yugao's and Tohru's, it didn't make any difference to the outcome. Hinata had already been nervy from the walk to Naruto's house and the shock and surprise that came with their greeting was just a little too much for her and she promptly fainted on Naruto's front porch. This action caused different reactions amongst those present. Ranging from rolling laughter curtesy of Hizashi and Tohru, to a raised eyebrow and headshake curtesy of Neji and Hiashi, to a slightly amused smirk curtesy of Yugao, to a few worried cries from Hitomi and Hisano, to Naruto's frantic yelps of help and "I'm sorry Hinata-chan"s as he held his best friend with his two tails while slightly shaking her.

Sighing while rubbing his temples, slightly annoyed that not only did Naruto not think of the outcome of his little surprise but neither did Tohru or a purple haired woman whom he didn't know, Hiashi just suggested to take his daughter inside the house and wait for her to wake back up.

It took a full five minutes for Hinata to wake up and in that time Hiashi had scowled Naruto for not thinking his actions thru and had also scowled Tohru and the newly acquainted Yugao for not being more responsible and stopping him, and Naruto had explained all the things he had planned for Hinata's party. As soon as said birthday girl began to stir, Naruto had virtually appeared next to her pleading for her forgiveness for scaring her.

It took Hinata a few seconds to remember what had happen and realise where she was. As soon as she did however she shot up from the couch she had been placed on and apologised profusely for fainting and letting everyone down. All the while the blush on her face was increasing from embarrassment.

"You didn't disappoint anyone Hinata-chan, it was Naruto-kun's silly prank that made you faint. Heck they even gave me a fright." Hitomi said comfortingly as she made her way to the couch to help her daughter stand. Her comment however caused an eyebrow to rise on Hiashi's face.

"Speaking of pranks Naruto-kun. I must ask you whether you know anything about the low-level exploding tag hidden in Elder Morino's soup?" Naruto turned to look at Hiashi with a confused face. At first one would assume that he didn't do or didn't know anything about it, mainly because of his innocent looking face. However, that assumption would quickly change when one saw the viciously evil looking fox grin that slowly formed on the little hanyou's face.

Chocking down a laugh Naruto answered Hiashi's question, all the while his grin increased. "I don't know what you're talking about Hiashi-san. What is this exploding tag you are speaking of?" Naruto asked in his most innocent voice he could muster. Hizashi exploding into laughter at the little hanyou's plainly obvious attempt at hiding his guilt, while Hiashi just increased his frown as if to say 'Yer right!'. "Fine have it your way I did it. But I think he deserved it! He and all those other elders are always mean to Hinata-chan, even on her birthday they can be mean so I just decided to surprise them a little for being such bastards. So I just made his soup explode in his face."

Tohru by this time had joined in with Hizashi in his laughter fit and even Yugao gave a small giggle, both of them hadn't known of Naruto's little revenge. Hiashi, Neji, Hisano and Hitomi however were not even the slight bit amused. They had found the small prank quite hilarious at the time and so did most of the Hyuga present, but right now they needed to explain to the little hanyou that it was not a wise idea to prank the elders of the Hyuga clan as it could have severe consequences.

"Naruto-kun, while we can understand your reasons and urges to prank people as mischievous things like that are natural instinct to kitsunes and therefore yourself, you must learn to either control those urges or choose your targets more carefully. You must understand that you could have got into a lot of trouble for what you did, and it was also lucky that Morino-san didn't accuse one of the branch members. You could have got one of them in trouble too. Especially after the bag of _feathers _fell on him afterwards." Hitomi explained to the little hanyou as sternly as she could but still in a gentle voice. It wasn't a scolding, it was more of explanation of his wrong actions. Even though a scolding may have worked, it wasn't really his fault that he didn't know what was right or wrong. So the situation needed to be dealt with differently, he needed to realise on his own accord that what he did was wrong.

Naruto's ears and tails drooped at the mini-lecture, he didn't think of the fact that he could have gotten someone else in trouble and he felt kind of bad because of it. "I'm sorry Hitomi-san… I didn't think of that… But the elders are always so mean so I just thought it would be a good way at getting back at them." By this time Hizashi, and Tohru had recovered and were listening intently to the conversation at hand. Hinata, who had completely recovered from her fainting spell, was feeling incredibly sorry for her friend. He only did it to get back at the mean elder for her sake and now he was getting in trouble.

"Well it's good that you realised your mistake. Now we won't punish you for what you did but I don't want to hear of you pranking any of the elder's again, understood?" Hitomi noticed him flinch a little when she said the word 'punish' and could only imagine what ran through his mind. Waiting patiently for him to answer her she smiled upon seeing him nod his head rapidly. "Good, now that that's out of the way, I believe we have some sort of birthday to celebrate am I right Naruto-kun?" Naruto frowned for a moment before his eyes widened as the realisation hit him. This was quickly followed by an excited movement before his dashed for his best friend.

Grabbing Hinata by both hand, eliciting a small eep of surprise from her, he started bounding up and down. His excitement basically oozing off of him. "YER THAT'S RIGHT! IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY HINATA-CHAN! AND NOW YOUR AWAKE WE CAN START TO HAVE FUN!" Everyone in the vicinity of a full mile winced at the volume of Naruto's voice and Tohru smacked her little brother lightly on the head to calm him down.

Hinata just smiled brightly as her best friend sped off with her in toe as he lead her around his house, showing her all the games that they could play and all the delicious things that they could eat. Hinata hadn't ever seen any of the games or any of the colourful foods that her best friend had prepared for her, and whatever nervousness she had before coming here vanished in a flash when a realisation hit her. This was going to be loads of fun.

In a not so happy and bright part of Konoha

Two figures appeared at either end of a dark and disused alleyway. The first of the two figures was completely covered from head to toe in black robes with not one part of his body left exposed, save his jet black eyes. The second was wearing slightly brighter clothing and was obviously richer then the first, however, he too was covered in pitch black, but his black coverage was from his cloak. As they approached each other one could see the distrust they held for the other, as was evident with their hidden hands which were obvious tucked away ready to reach for a kunai if the need arose.

When they were no more then two meters apart, the less extravagantly dressed of the two was the first to speak. "I assume that seeing you here means everything that was requested for has been completed?" the dark figure asked in an ominous and threatening tone. The second figure shivered slightly at his benefactor's words but stood his ground none the less, he couldn't possibly let something as trivial as a threatening tone affect him.

"Your assumption would be correct. All that is required is the time that you want the plan executed." The second figure waited patiently while his benefactor withdrew a small folded piece of paper from his robes, it was obvious that he was a professional as he would never actually speak the time. After reading the small note the second figure nodded slightly before confirming some finer details. "It shall be done as you ask. The festival being celebrated for the proposed alliance between the Village Hidden in the Clouds and the Village Hidden in the Leaves, although boring and of no interest to me, has provided a hole in security and will be of use when the time comes for the execution of the plan. As for the status of the target, she is currently in another location and won't return until later tonight. But luckily I have almost solid evidence proving that she will return before your designated time." His benefactor just nodded in silent agreement before disappearing in small puff of smoke, while he decided to return to his designated post the normal way. Both of them knew their jobs and they were determined to see them through no matter what.


	12. Chapter 11: Kidnapping of a princess

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

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**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Well here is another weekly chapter. Oh and about the poll on whether or not I should write a second fanfiction at the same time... well lets just say its quite one sided on not writing it and just sticking with this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however, own any original plotline in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 11: Kidnapping of a princess

Everyone that had attended Hinata's birthday party was having an absolute blast, as barely any of them had ever played the games that Naruto had set up. At first most of the adults just watched Naruto and Hinata play a few of the games and they eventually dragged Neji to join in, who after the first ten minutes was having just as much fun as the other two children. But after a while a few wanted to join in, namely Tohru, and as soon as she jumped up and started playing the rest quickly followed. Out of them all only Hiashi and Yugao were still sitting down watching, mainly because the game that was being currently played was far more entertaining to watch them participate.

From what Hiashi could gather the game consisted of a single donut tied to a string and the person assigned to that donut was to eat it without the use of their hands and they were blindfolded. Although Hiashi thought the game quite odd, it was perfect for a children's birthday party and was hilarious for him at the same time. Currently Naruto was trying to stand after tripping on his twin tails. Tohru was trying to stand after tripping on Naruto. While Hizashi and Hisano were fighting each other for the same donut, both thinking that it was their one. The only two that seemed to be any good at the game was Hinata and Neji.

Neji was good because he refused to lose regardless on how pointless he considered the game. Hinata was good because she had practically fallen in love with the little cinnamon covered dough ring and didn't want to miss out on eating it. Eventually everyone else had taken off their blindfolds out of frustration and had given up, and was fine with just watching the two remaining combatants. Except for Naruto that is, who was currently running up and down the hallway of his house in a desperate attempt to release the sudden energy that was rushing through his system.

While all the adults cringed at the complications that could arise from their favourite hyperactive hanyou having a sugar high from overdosing on softdrink and various lollies, they cheered both the still competing children on while murmuring bets on who would win. The cheers increased when Hinata, who had gotten a little upset that she was a little too short to reach the top part of the donut, took a page out of her best friend's book and jumped up. Catching the last part in her mouth and effectively winning the little game.

Neji removed the blindfold off of himself and his cousin as calmly as he could. To most anyone he would look like he didn't care that he lost such a simply game, but to those who knew him could tell he was infuriated at being beaten and was mentally cursing himself. Everyone was about to congratulate the littlest Hyuga but was beaten to it, but a super speeding blur that was Naruto.

"YOU-DID-IT-HINATA! YOU-BEAT-EVERYONE-CONGRATULATIONS-YOU-DID-IT-YOU-DID-IT-YOU-DID-IT! QUICK-LETS-GO-PLAY-ANOTHER-GAME!" Naruto shouted in the quickest paced speech anyone in the room had ever heard while bouncing up and down in the air and spinning in circles around his best friend. Tohru, deciding that it was best for her little brother to calm down picked him up by the scruff of his neck and lifted him to her eye level. However, even though he seemed to lose movement of his limbs when lifted up like that, anyone could easily see that his entire body was shaking. Clear evidence that he definitely was not to eat anything more with sugar in it.

"I think it's time to calm down otouto. You are bouncing around like a cloud ninja that just electrocuted himself." She told him while desperately trying not to laugh at his facial expression. Looking over to Hitomi and Hiashi who nodded at her knowing her question she returned her gazed back at her little brother before continuing. "Now, it's getting late so lets let Hinata-chan open her presents and then we will cut the cake ok?" She waited for a few seconds before placing him back on the ground, hoping that he could control all his sugar induced energy. To her surprise as soon as she released him he remained motionless before nodding his head and calmly walking over to where he had hidden his present for Hinata. Although anyone could easily tell that it was driving him crazy remaining so calm, if his near constant twitching of his ears and tails were any indication.

The other adults and Neji soon followed his actions and retrieved their gifts as well and soon seated themselves in a circle around Hinata, who was blushing furiously at being the centre of attention and was trying desperately to hide herself in her kimono. Although it was easy to see that her embarrassment could not even begin to remove the smile of happiness that was on her delicate face.

Hinata couldn't recall one time in her life where she was happier then she was right now. She had always wondered what it was like to have a birthday party like the other children of the village, but she could have never had imagined that it was this fun and amazing, and it was all thanks to her best friend. She couldn't wait to see what presents everyone had got her, and had to fight the urge to try and activate her Byakugan.

Slowly pulling her head from out of her kimono the grin never left her face as she was handed her first present, which was a combined present from her uncle, auntie and cousin. The present was a fairly long box and was only about 20cm deep, it was covered in light blue wrapping paper and was stuck down with clear tape and wrapped with a bright red ribbon. Gently undoing the ribbon she then tried her hardest to remove the sticky tape without damaging the paper, mainly because she wanted to keep it to draw pictures on it with Naruto when they next played.

She jumped a bit with fright when she felt something brush against her back, but calmed down when she realised that Naruto had virtually appeared next to her. She watched with a smile as he merely ran one of his clawed fingers along the tape, easily slicing through the thin sticky plastic and leaving the paper under it undamaged. She was about to voice her thanks but Naruto being the hyperactive one managed to speak first.

"Come on Hinata-chan! Quick! Let's see what you got!" Naruto said enthusiastically while practically vibrating from all his sugar energy. Everyone could clearly see that both children were having the time of their lives and it was a little difficult to see who was actually more excited about the presents.

Hinata carefully and slowly removed the wrapping paper, much to her speedy friend's dismay, and found a fairly large white box within it. Removing the lid off of the box Hinata's eyes widened to that of dinner plates while Naruto's mouth hit the floor. Within the box lay a beautiful lavender silk kimono. From the box it looked beautiful but as Hinata removed it and held it up, its true magnificent could be seen. The lower half of the kimono was cuffed and pleated in a vast array of curves, giving it the illusion that it was moving like waves. The top half was cut slightly lower then normal kimono's and had very intricate multihued light blue and purple lace and beads sown into the centre of the front, and slowly flowed around the arms to the back, forming a large butterfly.

"Wow Hinata-chan! Its so pretty! Quick try it on! I'm sure you'll look beautiful!" Naruto yelled enthusiastically. He wasn't sure why he was so excited for his best friend because he had never been one to care about clothing, but he was regardless and the quick movements of his tails imitated his excitement. Hinata blushed a deep red at her friend saying she would look beautiful in it; she also gave a small 'eep' when she was all of a sudden lifted into the air by two fluffy tails that had wrapped around her. She barely had enough time to grab a decent hold on her dress before Naruto pulled her towards the spare bedroom in his house. "You can use this room to change Hinata-chan!" He said while excitably pushing his best friend into the room, while he ran back to the circle of adults. But not before tripping on one of his tails and smacking into a hallway arch, giving a small yelp of pain. All of those present were shaking their heads in amusement at how uncoordinated the hyperactive little hanyou was when on a sugar high.

Changing his glance from the spare room where his daughter was getting changed to Naruto, Hiashi suppressed the urge to laugh as he spoke to the still stumbling hanyou. "Naruto-kun, while we all agree that Hinata-chan will look very nice in her new dress, I suggest you calm down a little more before you hurt someone or yourself even more." Naruto just nodded but seemingly ignored the statement as he started bouncing over to the circle of adults, placing himself next to his sister.

All present waited patiently as Hinata changed into her new dress, well if you call almost doing sitting summersaults in Naruto's case waiting patiently. About five minutes later, Hinata emerged from the spare bedroom wearing her new dress, although her head was down to hide her embarrassment and she was pushing her two pointing fingers together in nervousness. She never really liked being the centre of attention and she didn't really want to show off her new dress because regardless on how pretty she though it looked, she had a sad feeling that she would make it look ugly.

Finally gathering enough courage to lift her head, she noticed that everyone, including her best friend had their mouths open wide. Thinking she must look horrible in her new dress, Hinata quickly lowered her head and her blush increased. If she had kept her head up any longer then someone might have noticed small tears forming in her eyes.

She was about to run back to the room to change back out of it when she was stopped by Naruto who was the first to recover from the shock and speak up. "WOW HINATA-CHAN! I THOUGHT THAT THE DRESS LOOKED PRETTY BEFORE! YOU LOOK SO BEAUTIFUL IN IT!" To Naruto, the pattern and pleated curves on the kimono now really did look like live waves, and he was sure that if his best friend started dancing then it would probably look like a butterfly was flying.

Hinata, shocked by the complement, quickly flicked her head up and noticed that all of the adults and Neji were in complete agreement with Naruto and were also saying similar complements about how beautiful she looked. If possible, she blushed an even darker red as she nervously walked towards her uncle, auntie and cousin.

"Um...Th-thank you for t-the w-wonderful kimono... I-I like it v-very much." She said with a stutter. Hizashi and Hisano both smiled and said they were glad that she liked their gift while Neji just nodded his head.

She then slowly moved back to the centre of the circle to receive the rest of her gifts. Now not only excited about receiving them but also happy that everyone thought she looked very pretty in her new dress.

The next gift she received was from Tohru, who had put together a fairly extravagant folio containing all the equipment and information needed for flower pressing. Hinata however, not knowing what it was, looked up at Tohru with a confused expression. Before Hinata had a chance to voice her question, Tohru explained her gift, already knowing what the question would be. "Considering on how much you love flowers Hinata-chan, I thought that it would be the perfect gift for you. Plus I'm sure you could make some wonderful designs. It's called Flower Pressing, and it involves cutting various flowers and pressing them between different types of materials for a long time. Basically it flattens and preserves their shape and colour forever."

As soon as Hinata had heard the explanation she profusely thanked the older Hyuga, and promised to give the first flower she pressed to her as thanks. Hinata really wanted to try her present out immediately but knew that she would have to wait until tomorrow where she could use the flowers from the Hyuga Gardens. Naruto didn't understand what his friend found so cool about squishing a flower, but she liked her gift so that meant that he did to.

Turning her gaze to her parents expecting the next gift to be from them, Hinata was surprised when Yugao shifted forward handing her a small box not much bigger then Hinata's hands. Hinata however, felt bad about receiving a gift from a person she had only met a few times. "Y-Yugao-san... its um... I-I mean I don't w-want to seem u-ungrateful... but you d-didn't have to get me a p-present." She said while holding the small box up to the Anbu in training.

"I may spend more time with Naruto-kun here, but I still consider you a friend Hinata-chan. And besides, even if I didn't have to it doesn't matter because I wanted to." Yugao said while pushing the box back towards the littlest Hyuga.

Hinata was very grateful for Yugao's kind thought and thanked her before she opened the box delicately. Peering inside, Hinata was shocked to see a beautiful silver bracelet held within. The bracelet was a flat band with small intricate vines etched around its surface. On the inside the kanji for 'Inner Strength' was carved. She quickly pulled it from its box and slipped her right hand through it, staring at it with star filled eyes. "Th-Thank you Y-Yugao-san... it's s-so beautiful."

After allowing his best friend a few minutes to admire her new present Naruto, who's metabolism had amazingly dealt with most of his sugar high, decided it was his turn to give Hinata a present and ran to the edge of his house where a large covered square board lay leaning against the wall. Returning to the small group with it, he presented his present to his best friend but told her to let him explain it before she pulled the covers off.

"Well Hinata-chan, at first I really couldn't think of what to get you." He said while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "But Yugao-chan and Tohru-nee-chan told me that the best gift always comes from the heart and that means that the best gift is something that means a lot to you, and even more if from me." The children, besides Neji, missed the small nod of approval given to Yugao and Tohru from Hiashi and Hitomi for parting a good lesson to Naruto. "And so after a while I came up with this idea I um... hope you like it Hinata-chan.." he said with a grin.

Hinata had absolutely no idea what her best friend could come up with as a birthday present as he often seemed to be quiet unpredictable. But this only added to the excitement and Hinata found herself pulling off the cloth that covered the large rectangle much faster then she would have before. After removing the cloth however, her mouth slightly opened and she froze at what she saw. Under the cloth was a painting on canvas, obviously hand painted by Naruto as it very much resembled a children's drawing. The painting depicted a picture of herself and Naruto playing on the swings, with her being pushed on the swing by Naruto's two tails while he gave the peace sign and she laughed mirthfully. There was also a large yellow sun in the top right hand corner. But all of those wasn't what grabbed her attention, it was the title. Which read in a bright red 'Naruto and Hinata. Best Friends Forever!'. Hinata continued to stare at the painting and soon tears began forming in her eyes, slowly falling down her face. Seeing the tears Naruto feared that she didn't like his present, his smile quickly faded followed by his ears drooping as his tails ceased their usual movement.

"I... I'm sorry Hinata-chan... please don't cry... I... I thought you would like it... I'll make you something different if you wa-" Naruto was cut off from his sentence as his friend jumped up and tackled him to the ground. Surprising both him and most of the adults by her sudden movement. Naruto's ears perked back up however when he heard what his gift actually meant to his best friend.

"T-Thank you Naruto-kun... I-It's the best gift e-ever... I p-promise I'll a-always be your friend." She said between happy sobs as she hugged her best friend. Naruto had been right in his choice of gift, because to Hinata his friendship meant more to her then almost everything in the world. Before she had met him she had been so lonely and never had anyone to play with, and when there were people to play with, she had always been too nervous to approach them. Either that or they found her nervousness and shyness weird and picked on her. But Naruto wasn't like anyone else. He knew the pain of loneliness even worse than she did, and he accepted everything about her and never picked on her of shunned her for her shyness. His friendship was everything, and a symbol of that friendship was the best gift she could ever receive.

All of the precent adults smiled warmly at the cute display of friendship while both Hitomi and Hisano took a photo of the scene with cameras they produce from who knows where. Hizashi found this scene particularly humorous and decided to share his opinion.

"Yep, definitely like his father, already got girls tackli-" A quick glare from his wife silenced his tongue before he could finish his pathetic attempt at a joke. Hinata however, was brought back to reality by the sound of someone else's voice and realised that she had just tackled her best friend to the ground, and might have hurt him. Jumping back from the hug to allow him to stand she bowed her head in embarrassment from her forward actions.

After a few moments passed, Hinata had recovered enough from her embarrassment to look up once again, and as she did she noticed both of her parents smiling brightly. Quickly remembering that she was yet to receive their present, she gently lifted the canvas painting up before resting it against the nearest wall and slowly walking up to her parents. Everyone could easily see Hiashi and Hitomi's smile increase with each step their daughter took, and it had them all wondering on what their gift could possibly be.

"Hinata-chan my daughter, your mother and I have two gifts to give you, and we can almost guaranty that one of them is just as good at Naruto-kun's gift." Hiashi spoke with a smile before looking over to his wife, waiting for her to continue for him.

"Now the first gift you shall have to wait until tomorrow because _someone_-" She said while glaring at her husband. "forgot to bring it with him. But the second gift will more then make up for it." Hitomi finished while gesturing for her daughter to come sit on her lap. Hinata followed obediently and was soon starring up into her mother's face. She was a little started when her mother gently grabbed hold of one of her hands and placed it on her stomach. "Our gift to you, is a baby sister. I'm pregnant Hinata-chan."

A collective gasp was heard from all precent and both Hiashi and Hitomi could barely stop themselves from laughing at the odd array of shocked faces. After the initial shock of the announcement wore off, Hitomi and Hiashi received an onslaught of congratulations as all the adults gathered around them wishing them the best. Hinata was stunned the whole time, and could barely complete a single thought, all that she could think of was how wonderful it would be to have a sibling, especially a younger one. _'I'm... I'm gonna have a little sister! Oh I can't wait!... I wonder if she will look like me?' _Her excitement and happiness flowed off of her as she thought of the various things she could teach her coming sister and of all the games they could play. Sure she loved playing with Naruto but she was certain there were some things that only girls would play together.

Amongst all the excitement, no one seemed to notice that Naruto was observing the whole event with a confused face, his ears twitched as his mind tried desperately to figure out what had everyone so excited. If he had focused on the first part that Hitomi had said he might have been able to work it out. But he was too focused on the word 'pregnant' as he had no idea what it meant. After waiting for the excitement to settle down a bit, Naruto walked up to Hitomi and tugged on her dress to get her attention.

"Hitomi-san, what does pregnant mean?" Naruto asked with his arms slightly crossed, showing his confusion. Hitomi and the others immediately stopped and looked down at the little hanyou who seemed to be quiet upset at missing out on something because he didn't understand one word. Hitomi, knowing that despite his good speech for a five year old street urchin, he wouldn't know many words that aren't used in normal sentences, decided to be the one to explain.

"Being pregnant Naruto-kun, means that a woman has a baby growing within her belly, and that after nine months they will give birth to a baby. Because I have been pregnant for about three months, in about six months time I will give birth. Although normally it is hard to tell whether or not the growing baby is a boy or a girl, with the Byakugan I was able to tell that is was a girl." Hitomi explained in a lecturing tone. For a split second Hitomi could have swore that she saw a slither of clarity enter his eyes, but it was gone as fast as it came. And in its place seemed to stand even more questions and curiosity.

"But... How does a baby get in the woman's belly?" Naruto puzzled to the adults around him. Hinata frowned slightly as she heard her friend's question, and was equally interested in how a baby got their. Neji also seemed to display a flicker of curiosity, but it wasn't much more then a raised eyebrow. The adults looked at one another as if mentally questioning who wanted to answer the little hanyou. Eventually Hitomi spoke up and just told him she would explain it when he was older.

Naruto was slightly annoyed by the answer as he didn't like having to wait for explanations, but considering that the Hyuga's, Yugao and the Old Man were the only people to ever answer his questions he would let it go. It did however, bring up another thought in his young mind and that was if this had anything to do with the last thing he was told that would be explained to him when he was older. "This doesn't have anything to do with hooters does it? And if it does, does that mean that Tohru-nee-chan will have a baby too? Because she is gonna have her hooters licked." Naruto asked/stated while tilting his head to the side, to which everyone burst out into hysterical laughter, except the children who didn't understand and Tohru who was burning up from embarrassment at the mixed statement her naive little brother had pieced together from all the topics he was confused about. The adults had all heard about a few of the confusing things that Naruto had picked up from conversations he had overhead, but no one had ever expected such an innuendo to form from his attempts at making some sense of it all.

A loud thud followed by a loud yelp indicated that Tohru had given Naruto his answer in a form of a thump on top of his head. After the initial dizziness had cleared Naruto pointed accusingly at his sister while demanding to know why she hit him. "Because I told you dear little brother, that I didn't want you to ever say that word again! It is a rude word and it embarrasses me!" Tohru retorted while placing her hands on her hips. Naruto however was too dizzy and sore to really fight back, so he settled for just sticking his tongue out at her. Hinata, who felt sorry that her friend had got thumped, hoped off of her mother's lap before walking over to her best friend and rubbing his sore head and scratching his ears. Which instantly seemed to calm him and he was soon producing that same low growl that he usually did, displaying his pleasure at the scratching.

"Right, while Hinata-chan is busy 'petting' my otouto I'm going to go get the cakes." At the sound of the word cakes Hinata jumped up in excitement, and to Naruto's displeasure ceased her rubbing of his ears. The Hyuga heiress could barely contain her excitement as Tohru slowly returned with a large plate in each hand. Everyone gathered around the main food table as two _very_ _different_ cakes were placed down on it. One was a firm sponge cake with bright pink and white icing with cream swirls around the rim and the words 'Happy Birthday Hinata' written in the centre. The other was a droopy grey pile of goo that looked like it could melt the plate if left on it too long. It was very easy to tell which one Tohru made and which one Naruto made.

After arranging the candles on the cakes and singing the Happy Birthday Song, Hinata blew out the candles as she made a wish. A wish that unknown to her, would eventually become reality in the most strangest of abstractions. The cakes were then cut into equal pieces, or what resembled equal in Naruto's cake's case and everyone begun to eat them. At first everyone just ate a piece of Tohru's cake but soon they started to notice the sad look in the little hanyou's eyes at having his cake rejected and it was surprisingly Hinata who gathered enough courage to try the grey mush.

As Hinata finished her mouthful her eyes widened slightly and looked they were glazing over, and for a second everyone wondered if the cake was toxic or not. But that worry quickly vanished when Hinata suddenly began to virtually inhale the grey cake. All the while voicing her approval between mouthfuls. "It's r-really nice Naruto-kun!"

Hinata's approval broke the concerns of the adults and soon everyone was consuming the odd grey cake that Naruto had made, each also voicing their approval. Naruto's ears perked up and his tails began waving happily at hearing that his cake was enjoyable.

Soon after the cakes were eaten and most of the cleaning had been done, the adults started to notice the prolonged yawns shared by the three children and decided to call it a night. "Come on Hinata-chan, Neji-kun. It's probably time that we start heading back. Say thank you to Naruto-kun for the wonderful party that he planned." Hitomi instructed her daughter as she and her husband began walking towards the front door.

Hinata dashed over to her best friend and gave him and big hug while thanking him for being such a wonderful friend and for the party. Naruto was more then happy to receive another hug and more then glad that his friend had enjoyed her birthday party. Naruto's happy grin slowly left his face however when the Hyuga's and Yugao begun to leave through his front door, the memories of loneliness once again filling his mind, he never liked it when his friends left, even if it was to just go home for the night. "Wait! I'll help carry Hinata's painting!" Naruto declared before running out of his door and assisting his best friend carry the rather large canvas painting. Everyone could easily see that it was just an excuse to stay with them longer, but none of them would ever call him out on it, it was only natural to want to stay close to those that treat you well.

As they all exited Naruto's house, Yugao again wished Hinata a happy birthday before dismissing herself and disappearing in a swirl of leaves. The whole time, never noticing an almost invisible presence following them the whole way with a malicious grin plastered on his aged face.

At the Hyuga Compound

The dark cloaked figure smiled to himself from under his hood as he watched the two main gate guards rotate with another pair of guards, and unknowingly to them fifteen minutes before the scheduled rotations. "Ah, so our benefactor wasn't kidding when he said we had inside assistance. Hehehe, this will be so easy it might actually be hard to have any fun." He mused to himself as he dropped down from the tree he had hidden himself in, and sped through the shadows cast by the late night moon and the walls of the Hyuga Estate. He watched carefully as he neared the main gate, he had precisely twenty seconds to reach and neutralise the guards before they did their scheduled scan of the perimeter with their Byakugan's.

He watched with a scowl as they quickly made the needed hand signs for their beloved bloodline. But instead of the usual pulse around the eyes, the only feeling they felt was a small but piercing pain to the back of their necks. But that was the last thing both guards felt as they fell to the ground, life slowly leaving their pale lavender eyes as blood pooled around them from their fatal wounds. The dark figure behind them just chuckled to himself at his handy work, while it wasn't particularly hard he did still find it well executed. "Heh, I'm in." Was the last thing that came from his mouth before he disappeared into the very shadows that had hidden him from the guards.

With Naruto

Naruto was happily walking through the moonlight lit streets while humming a small tune in his head as he tried to time his tail movements to the beat of it. After spending the last half hour playing with his best friend at her house, he had decided it was probably best to leave for his home at it was getting really late. He was quite pleased with himself as he continued to navigate the streets surrounding the Hyuga compound, he had given his best friend one the best birthday she ever had, and it made him extremely happy whenever his friend was happy. He was however, itching to get back to his home as it offered far more security then the open streets of Konoha. Especially at night.

Hiashi and Hitomi had offered to send a guard with him, but he had declined saying that he would easily be able to hear or smell anyone near him and would just avoid them. They had tried to insist but he just seemed far too stubborn and would not change his mind. But now as he actually was walking back to his home, he kind of wished he had accepted their offer. Even though he was extremely happy and to many if they were to look at him walk through the empty streets he would appear quiet carefree, to those that knew him well however would easily be able tell that he was terrified.

Recently he seemed to be able to deal with the harsh words and the glares, but he only seemed to be able to coop with them whenever he was around his friends. When he was by himself he felt vulnerable again, and could almost feel the hatred filled glares starring at him from all directions. Even without the villagers around, Naruto feared being out in the open as memories of the numerous beatings and the cold feeling of loneliness would always filter back within his mind. As he continued to walk towards his home, constantly scanning his surroundings, his ears twitched slightly as they picked up the sounds of someone approaching from behind him and he spun around just in time to see a shadowy figure carrying a fairly large bag, dashing through one of the nearby alleyways. Half from fright, half from instinct Naruto demanded that the figure identify himself/herself.

The cloaked figure bounded from rooftop to rooftop as he quickly made his escape from the Hyuga compound. His mission was successful, he had kidnapped the Hyuga heiress and without alerting any guards. Even though he was impressed with the efficiency that he had worked at, he was slightly disappointed that there wasn't any fights, as he was looking forward to a nice bloodbath.

After making sure he was a significant distance from the Hyuga compound, he jumped down from the roofs and decided to run through the many streets of Konoha instead. Even though jumping from roof to roof was a much faster method of travel, it wasn't very good for cover which is exactly what he needed right now. Dashing through the various streets and alleyways, the cloaked assassin smiled to himself as he started to imagine his promised reward, his eyes turned to dollar signs as he practically drooled at the imaginary sounds of clinking gold coins as he mentally counted each one. He was rudely brought out of his little fantasy however, when he heard a voice behind him.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" The cloaked figure cursed out loud as he spun around to face the direction of the voice. Fully expecting a leaf ninja to have found him he landed in a defensive taijutsu stance, prepared to defend himself if need be. To his surprise, instead of finding a leaf ninja he found a blond hair boy who would have been no older then five. The boy seemed fairly normal except for two red and cream fox ears atop his head as well as twin tails of the same colour scheme.

'_Great... the Hyuga's couldn't detect me, and yet I was discovered by a cosplaying kid...' _As much as it pissed him off that he was discovered and that his instincts told him to just knock the kid out, he was _very _pressed for time and so decided to just tell the kid to rack off. "Leave now boy, forget everything you saw and I won't be forced to hurt you." The cloak figure demanded while leaking a far bit of killer intent. He smiled when he saw the kid take a few steps back in fear. Perhaps he would get a small amount of fun from this job after all, even if it was only scaring the piss out of a child.

Naruto started to shake frightfully when his mind started playing through scenarios of the strange hooded man beating him. Taking quick steps back preparing to run away Naruto stopped suddenly when a strange, but oddly familiar smell met his nose. A scent that he hadn't smelt since his first day with the Hyuga's. _'That scent... It... it reminds me of Hinata-chan... but... its smells like metal... and wet.' _You could virtually see the cogs of Naruto's mind turning as he racked his brain for some identification to the strange smell. His eyes suddenly widened with realisation and he crouched to all fours while growling viciously, his tails moving in quick jerks displaying his sudden anger. _'That's... that's Hinata-chan's blood! Why can I smell Hinata-chan's blood from that sack?'_ Naruto slowly felt his mind become clouded as less and less thoughts could be processed amongst the increasing anger. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew it wasn't good.

The cloaked assassin cocked an eyebrow as the strange little boy in front of him suddenly started growling? The low and rather vicious sounding growl was soon followed by odd twitching movements in both his ears and twin tails. _'What the hell? He can actually move them? Are they a part of him? What sort of freak is this boy?'_ Suddenly he found the strange blond quite interesting, and temporarily forgot that he was in a huge hurry.

"What are you doing with Hinata-chan?" Naruto demanded of the strange cloaked ninja. His voice was low and vicious, but had quiet a commanding presence about it, something that slightly impressed the assassin. And somehow he was also still able to growl while speaking. The assassin however, just raised his eyebrow to the question, not that you could see it because of the cloak's hood covering most of his face. "I'll ask again! Why do you have Hinata-chan in that SACK?" Naruto gave off what could only be classified as a roar as he spoke that last word, while the assassin just gave an amused chuckle. Whoever the little brat was, at least it seemed like he could mess with him a little for kicks.

"Oh, so you mean the girl's name is Hinata eh? Well well well... I have no idea how you managed to identify that I had her in this sake... but I might be willing to tell you why if you tell me about those strange features of yours." The cloaked assassin offered in a cool and calm voice, which only pissed Naruto off more. It sounded like the strange man was just wanting to toy around, but if it would help him find out what he was doing with Hinata then he would play for now.

"It's my bloodline, anyone who has it is able to take on traits of a certain animal. Mine is a kitsune. Now tell me what your doing with Hinata-chan NOW!" Naruto roared at the man again, as his tails lashed about behind him. He had to almost physically restrain himself from charging him that very second, for he was convinced that this man was up to no good, and if that meant that Hinata was in danger, then that just meant he would have to kick this bastard's arse.

"Hmm, such a feisty one aren't you. And such a peculiar bloodline." The assassin wasn't an idiot, to most it would seem that the boy's odd bloodline would be quite useless but he could tell that it was more then just physically benefits that would be granted to him. _'Hmm... maybe that's how he realised I have that girl. He could probably smell her... how interesting.'_ He mused to himself, before his face contorted as a huge grin formed on his face. His mission was to kill a few Hyuga and kidnap their heiress to use for breeding a clan of Byakugan users in the Hidden Cloud Village, but they didn't say anything about not stealing a second bloodline. "You know what kid, I find you quite amusing. So I'll tell you what I'm doing with your little 'Hinata-chan'. I'm kidnapping her and taking her to the Hidden Cloud Village, they are paying me a rather handsome amount of money for the little brat. As far as I know, they will just be using her to breed more Byakugan users. She'll be a slave in producing a clan with a genuine kekkei genkai, her life will be miserable beyond belief." The assassin ended with an evil chuckle. It was all he could do to prevent himself from breaking out in full blown laughter, the look of complete horror on the little brat's face was too hilarious.

Naruto's crouching stance faltered for a second when he heard what the bastard had said he had taken Hinata for, and his growling stopped from shock. He may not have completely understood what he was talking about, but there was one part he understood well. They wanted Hinata so they could make babies with her that have the Byakugan. Naruto's stunned expression remained plastered on his face as he leant back onto two legs, clutching her chest slightly as the fear began to set in. Fear of this man, fear of Hinata getting mistreated, fear of the pain everyone would go through when they found she had been kidnapped. But most of all fear of losing his best friend.

Naruto's growl returned with even more ferociousness as he focused on that last cause of fear. _'He... he's taking Hinata-chan away... I... I can't let him, I have to stop him!'_ His fear of being alone again and his fear of the bad things that would happen to his best friend raced through his head. And within an instance Naruto had charged at the cloaked man with the intent to kill if need be. Regardless of what would happen to himself, he had to save his friend.

The assassin watched in increasing amusement as the strange bloodline carrying boy crouched on all fours again before charging straight at him. He would have to admit that the boy was definitely fast for his age, the brat had virtually appeared in front of him. But that sort of speed was nothing compared to his own, and he could do little but chuckle darkly as he watched the brat attacked him with what looked like a downward swipe with a half open hand. Deciding to milk as much amusement as he could from the raging boy, instead of countering, he just raised his arms in a cross shape to catch the odd blow. He was shocked beyond measurement when he felt what could only be classified as knives piece and travel down the length of his left arm.

Naruto fell to the ground still in his four legged crouch slightly stunned at what he had done as he watched the man stumble back a few paces, screaming out in pain while clutching his blood dripping arm. Naruto had never attacked someone with his claws before, and it made him feel sick in his stomach seeing the damage he had caused another human being, especially when he looked at his blood covered hand. But that feeling quickly dispersed when he noticed that the cloaked man had dropped the sack containing his best friend.

Reaching for the bag with one of his tails, Naruto carefully lifted the sack and placed it behind him. Positioning himself in front his best friend in a protective way, Naruto glared murderous daggers at the man who had attempted to kidnap his friend. "Leave NOW! I will not let you take Hinata-chan! GO!" Naruto demanded as he roared once again at the man.

The assassin had recovered from his momentary shock enough to register the actual damage done to his arm and the brat who had caused it. Quickly ripping part of his shirt to bind his severely bleeding arm, the man turned his gaze to the little brat that had caused his injury and noted his own blood on one of the brat's hands. It was then that he noticed that the boy's hands were slightly different in shape then a normal human's and that his fingernails were long and sharp. The little brat had claws! "I'll kill you you little shit! You may have caught me by surprise with your claws but I won't underestimate you again!" The assassin yelled before charging towards the brat, he was going to enjoy this.

Naruto gave a loud growl before charging the man that was rushing towards him. Naruto was the first to strike, and swung each of his clawed hands at the man in succession to the other, each time at a different angle to the last. His height made it difficult to actually reach the man but he could easily jump up high enough to reach if the need arose.

The cloaked assassin grunted in annoyance as he continued to block Naruto's irrational swipes. It was easy for a chunin of his status to block to attacks of a five year old, the trouble was attacking after the blocks. It was almost impossible to counter them because all of his blocks had to be altered either to the left or right to account for the claws, but this meant that he had too much of an over swing which meant he couldn't strike back.

Naruto growled in frustration and anger as his attacks were blocked with little difficulty. Deciding to try a different tactic, Naruto leapt up and tried to kick the bastard with his clawed foot, but to his surprise his foot was just caught at the ankle before he was pounded in the gut by a charka enhanced punch. A loud yelp resonated throughout the alleyway followed by the sound of something slamming into a brick wall.

Naruto yelped again as he pulled himself free from the crumbling wall. But just before he charged again, the cloaked ninja appeared in front of him delivering a nasty knee shot to his chin which was quickly followed through with a side kick to his gut. An audible crack could be heard as Naruto flew through at air towards another wall, coughing up blood along the way from his newly cracked rib. As he struck the new wall Naruto unleashed a bloodcurdling scream as kunai knives were pelted into his body while some pierced his clothing and the wall, holding him in place. Somehow the assassin had charged the kunai with lighting charka, and the electrical surge that travelled through his body immobilised him completely. When the assassin said that he wouldn't underestimate him again, he really wasn't kidding.

Naruto's growl never ceased regardless of him being mostly paralysed as the clocked assassin slowly walked towards the sack still containing his best friend. Ungraciously picking up the small bundle and throwing it over his shoulder, the assassin turned and grinned evilly at his next prize. "I'll be back for you you little shit! For the damage you did to my arm I'll take great pleasure in talking you too after I have delivered this pathetic excuses for a Hyuga you call 'Hinata-chan'. For what you did I will make sure I make you watch her suffer as often as I can." The cloaked assassin just laughed at the horrified expression on the brats face, it was that face of utter hopelessness that he loved to see on his victims the most.

Looking to add just a little more salt to the wound the assassin gave another charka enhanced punch to Naruto's gut, effectively winding the little hanyou and almost knocking him unconscious, before just walking away with a satisfied smirk on his face. It was a good day, he had killed four Hyuga guards, kidnapped their heiress, made money in the process and managed to beat up a little boy. Yep his day was perfect. He was brought out of his musing however, when he felt a terrifying pressure building up behind him.

Naruto growl slowly faded as he watched the bastard just walk away with his best friend and in its place, tears fell. Naruto could do nothing to prevent his friends capture and even less to save her. His tears increased as he realised on how little he could do to help her, she was one of the most important people in his life and he couldn't even save her from getting kidnapped. His heart broke in two as he realised on how weak and powerless he really was, sure he was only five years old, but he still hated the fact he could do nothing to help her. The pains of loneliness tore through his little body as he saw the memories of his time without his friend return to the forefront of his mind. The beatings, the insults, the confusion, the sadness at not having even one person as a friend, all these thoughts returned to him and as each memory flashed through his mind, his tears and hurt only increased.

'_She was my first friend... and I... I couldn't save her... I'm so weak... I couldn't do anything... what sort of monster couldn't even save his best friend... Hinata-chan... I'm so sorry...' _Naruto glanced up with teary eyes at the disappearing figure holding his best friend as the void of loneliness slowly crept back into his heart. Naruto suddenly felt his sadness change to anger as he continued to glare death daggers at the bastard who was taking his best friend away. _'I... I have to stop him... He's taking Hinata-chan away... I... I can't let him! I have to stop him!' _Naruto felt an odd fire build within him as his anger towards the man threatened to engulf his entire mind. The fire felt painful, full of bloodlust and anger and slightly... evil? But it also felt familiar and powerful. Not knowing what it was and being in a desperate state, Naruto mentally grabbed hold of the fire and subconsciously willed it to his command.

A flood of power surged through his body as the fire expanded from where he could only guess was his stomach. The power brought on odd but strong feelings, and Naruto felt his anger and hatred towards the man holding his friend multiple by incalculable amounts. _'He's taking Hinata-chan away! I can't let him! I can't let him take Hinata-chan away! I'll KILL HIM IF I HAVE TOO! I WON'T LET HIM TAKE HINATA-CHAN AWAY!'_ Naruto unleashed a monstrous rage filled roar as the strange power blasted from his body in the form of wispy red charka. The assassin could do little but shack in his cloak as he felt like the air around him was being crushed by the boys killer intent.

The population of Konoha were quickly awoken by the one feeling they never wanted to feel again. Mothers rushed to their children, holding them tight while crying. Fathers stood by their family praying that they wouldn't lose what was most precious to them. The massive power that Naruto extruded from his body was a power they all knew well. It's crushing pressure and killer intent could only be matched by its feelings of pure bloodlust and uncontrollable rage. The whole of Konoha coward under the power and many thought that their worst fears had finally come true, they knew what the power was. It was red youkai, the charka of the Nine Tailed Fox. It was back, and it would destroy them all.


	13. Chapter 12: A Demon’s power to protect h

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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And so here is another weekly chapter of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel. As for the poll... well its now closed as I got a quick idea by the votes that I should just focus on this fanfiction for now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however, own any original plot or characters in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 12: A Demon's power to protect his Angel

The awaking population of Konoha had a huge variety of reactions to the presence of the Nine Tailed Fox's bloodthirsty chakra. Most of the civilians huddled together with their families, praying that they would again be saved from the fox. A few that had seen Naruto recently were now cursing his name for bringing doom upon them all. Almost all precent shinobi rushed to the source of the fox's charka, intent on stopping the fox from destroying their village for the second time. There were a few individuals however, who had completely unexpected reactions, and unbeknownst to those individuals, they would be the very ones to decide the fate of one Naruto Uzumaki when the time came.

The Uchiha Compound

Itachi Uchiha was royally pissed. He had just returned home from his second B rank mission this week, and was hoping to have a little peace and quiet so he could rest a little before embarking on his next oh-so-challenging mission. But instead of peace and quiet, Itachi was currently consoling his younger brother Sasuke. Who had just been mentally abused by their father, who had in turn tried to abuse him by saying that it was his fault that their father hated him and that he hated his older brother. It didn't take long for the anger to quickly change to tears however. Itachi just sighed as he lent his younger brother a shoulder to cry on.

Itachi was the pride of the Uchiha Clan, he was roughly five foot five with straight shoulder length black hair, a well built figure and a face that most men would give there left leg for. His eyes were charcoal black like almost all Uchiha, and didn't even seem to reflect light. His expressions were always blank and unreadable and he seemed possessed an aura of calmness and indifference. He wore the standard Uchiha blue shirt with black cargo pants with the Uchiha Clan symbol, a red and white fan, printed on the back of the shirt. Having made Chunin by the age of ten, his skills were unmatched by his peers and he was considered the greatest prodigy since the fourth hokage.

His clan possessed a powerful bloodline called the Sharingan, which gave them powerful eyes capable of predicting and copying an opponents moves instantly, as well as confusing them with illusions and Itachi was considered the greatest user of the Sharingan since his clan's founder. While Itachi enjoyed the praise he got for his status, there were many negatives that severely outweighed the positives. The first major negative would be his shear boredom when completing even the most challenging mission. Despite his age, Itachi had little problem defeating some of the most feared ninja of the current time. His skill level meant that life held no challenge for him and as the days past life seemed to get drearier. The second major negative would be the horrible treatment his younger brother receives from his friends and family for not being as talented as his older brother. There were many more negatives but those two pissed him off the most.

"Itachi-nii-san... Why? Why does father always prefer you over me? Why am I not good enough for him?" Sasuke asked with a croaky voice caused by his near constant tears. Itachi just held his younger brother as he cried into his shoulder. From what he understood between his little brother's sobs and hiccups, their father had berated Sasuke by calling him weak and that he should be more like his older brother. Their father, Fugaku Uchiha, was the head of the Uchiha Clan and saw himself and all those of the Uchiha Clan as superiors to all others. Because of this superiority complex, he expected nothing but better then the best from all Uchiha, especially his two sons. And if they didn't meet his demands like Sasuke had, then you were considered useless.

Itachi could barely contain his rage at the sheer stupidity and insensitivity of his father and quickly tried to think of a way to slightly undo the damage that Fugaku had caused his youngest son. "It's just because he can't see the real you little brother. If he didn't focus so much on the greatness of our clan, then maybe he would see what you can do. You should know that I thi-" Itachi was cut off from his sentence as he felt a huge chakra surge, which was quickly followed by a huge shockwave that knocked himself and his brother off the bed they were sitting on. _'What is that power! It's incredible!' _Itachi baffled to himself while trying to help his brother up from the ground.

Whatever it was, it was strong but not just power level wise. It was also strong in emotions. Dark emotions that drive the darker part of the human mind, emotions of hatred, rage, wrath and most of all bloodlust. Itachi could almost taste the uncontained urge to kill in the very air itself. It was suffocating the level of bloodlust and killer intent that this strange chakra was producing, and it just seemed to increase as the seconds continued. Releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding in, Itachi glanced down at his younger brother, concerned on how he would handle against such ludicrous levels of killer intent.

Itachi's concern was right on the mark as Sasuke was having trouble even standing up. He was currently crouched down on all fours, barely able to draw in a breath. This urge to kill, this desire for absolute slaughter was far beyond the ability of a child to deal with. Fear gripped Sasuke's heart, he didn't know why but he knew he was going to die. He could feel it within his very soul, whatever this soul crushing feeling of bloodlust was would be the thing to kill him. _'Big brother!... What... What is this feeling... I'm... I'm gonna die! I DON'T WANNA DIE!' _Sasuke screamed within his own mind as tears poured from his face. A huge part of the horrible feeling disappeared when a strange object pressed against his shoulder. Sasuke screamed in the real world in fright at the sudden pressure from the object and jerked his head up to see what had touched him. Only to see the concerned face of his older brother, and remembering on how strong his brother really was made him feel much safer from this vile feeling in the air. "Itachi-nii-san... wh-what's going on? What is this feeling?"

"Don't worry otouto. I'll make sure it doesn't hurt you. I'll be back in a moment, after I make sure that whatever it is isn't an enemy." Quickly giving his younger brother a playful flick on the forehead, he then stood up and disappeared as leaves suddenly swirled around him.

Reappearing just outside the Uchiha compound, Itachi took off at blinding speeds over the rooftops of Konoha, he could sense where the malicious charka was coming from and it should only take him a minute to get there at the most. But the startling thing was he could also sense hundreds of other charka signatures approaching the same location, obviously whatever had caused this enormous vile charka had attracted the attention of almost the entire leaf shinobi force. Itachi gave a small shudder as he continued to speed over the rooftops, not just from the pressure of the charka but also from the excitement it caused him. Because whatever had such a charka might actually be able to give him a challenge, something that he was missing in his life. An obstacle to overcome, a challenge to meet, something to test his abilities, anything of the sort would be godsend in his life. He couldn't wait to see who or what possessed this vile charka and increased his speed as he locked on to the location where he could have sworn he could see wisps of red charka spiraling from.

At the Hokage Tower mere moments before

"Lord Hokage! Do you sense that? The Nine Tailed Fox has been unleashed! What are we to do!" A random chunin ninja asked as he burst through the Hokage's office doors. Only to find approximately one hundred ninja standing at attention in front of a clearly nervous Hokage.

Sarutobi was facing away from his shinobi as he glanced out of the windows in his office with worried eyes towards the direction of where he could literally see a large spiral of red charka. Sarutobi nervously tapped his pipe on his desk, before lighting it and taking a few big breaths of the burning tobacco, hoping that it would help calm him down.

He knew that Minato's seal holding the Nine Tailed Fox within Naruto wouldn't break so easily, as he and Jiraiya had studied the notes he left behind extensively. Because of this he knew something had caused Naruto's demonic blood to increase, increasing the amount of youkai he drew from the fox. If his theory on how Naruto draws on the demonic chakra was correct then something had caused him enormous emotional strain and in the process really pissed him off. Sarutobi knew that Naruto was a very happy child when around those who were kind to him and very sad and lonely when left by himself, but the only time he had ever seen him get angry was when that boy had teased Hinata Hyuga.

Sarutobi's pipe fell from his mouth when he noticed on how close the red chakra spiral was to the Hyuga Compound. _'Something must have happened to one of Naruto's Hyuga friends!'_ Sarutobi didn't want to think of the consequences that would occur from Naruto using the fox's chakra, but if it was to save one of the Hyuga then at least some might view his use of it honourable, that's if he could control it. The little hanyou was only five after all, and Sarutobi could not even begin to imagine the control that would be needed to not mentally succumb to the bloodlust of the fox's chakra.

Turning back to face his fellow ninja, all of whom had appeared in his office mere seconds after Naruto released the fox's chakra, he gave his orders. "You are to all come with me to the source of the chakra. But I don't want anyone of you to attempt to capture or kill Naruto. I want to see the level of control he has over himself when drawing upon the fox's charka."

This statement shocked more than a few of the present ninja. They could not see any logic behind their leader wanting to observe something that could very easily spiral out of control. Sure most of them believed in the fourth Hokage's ability in seals and were pretty sure that the fox would never escape. But with him gone it did leave a few holes in their faith, and apart from that, they could barely breath under the pressure of the fox's chakra. And if they were having such difficulty just being within a mile of the chakra, how in the nine hells was a five year old boy suppose to handle having his body flooded with it?

"Hokage-sama, while I do understand your faith in the forth's abilities with keeping the fox at bay. How could you possibly expect a five year old to control himself with such chakra surging through him? It's just too powerful, and its level of bloodlust is sickening!" Sarutobi glanced at the ninja who had spoken up and he had to admit that she had a point, but Sarutobi knew something that they would have overlooked.

"While I understand your concern Yitara-chan, you are all forgetting one key fact." Sarutobi said while taking a few more puffs of his pipe after retrieving it off the ground. "You are forgetting that Naruto is a hanyou. He has lived all his life with a fair amount of demonic chakra circulating throughout his body and as such, grown accustomed to it. Even though what he is currently drawing on is far larger then he has ever had in his body, I believe he will be able to control himself and the chakra. Now-" With that starting word Sarutobi placed his pipe on his desk and slightly lowered his head. In an instant, gone was the old man facade. And in it's place stood a man of great wisdom and even greater power. His whole body shifted slightly followed by a serious expression forming on his face, his demeanour becoming solid and his mind becoming sharp, cold, and calculating but still calm. Right now Sarutobi appeared before his fellow shinobi as the embodiment of what the Hokage stood for. And many were reminded why he was called the greatest Hokage ever in the Hidden leaf village, as his mere presence was now almost equal in pressure to that of the fox's chakra.

"-I believe we have a village to protect. I want all of you to follow me and observe Naruto, if I believe his control is slipping then I will give the order to have him knocked unconscious. If there is something or someone causing his rage then I will wait to see how he handles it before you are to interfere. I do _NOT_ want him to be injured under any circumstance. Am I clear!" A resonating 'Hai Hokage-sama' was all that was heard before a once crowed room became filled with nothing but small leaves swirling gently before littering the floor with vast shades of green.

Hyuga Compound

Hiashi and Hitomi were sleeping peacefully in each other's arms, both happy that their daughter had such a wonderful birthday. Before they went to bed they had both agreed that they would definitely plan something wonderful for Naruto's next birthday. Not just in thanks for the party he planned for Hinata but also because out of everyone, he deserved to have his birthday celebrated the most.

Both heads of the Hyuga clan were pulled from their slumber by a monstrous roar of both pain and rage. Hiashi and Hitomi regained consciousness at the same time and quickly jolted up and out of their bed. Immediately feeling the rage and bloodlust in the air they activated their Byakugans, but only to be met with a massive haze of red chakra blocking their sight. The Byakugan has the ability to see through any object and can see thousands of meters ahead of the user. However, because of the Byakugan's ability to also see chakra it's vision can be affected by large amounts of chakra in the surrounding area of the user. This was the current case except on a much larger scale then either Hiashi or Hitomi had ever experienced. With their Byakugans active they could barely see a few feet in front of them before they vision was lost.

However, even without their sight they could still easily identify what the red chakra blocking their vision was. And that knowledge was more frightening to them then anything they had ever seen or felt.

"Hiashi-kun! That's the fox's chakra! What's happening to Naruto-kun? Where is he?" Hitomi cried out while holding tight to her husband's arm. It wasn't that she was scared of the chakra that caused the need for the close comfort, it was more fear of what could possibly anger him so much. She knew the fox wasn't escaping, but that did little to decrease her worries. Turning to Hiashi when he didn't answer her, her heart skipped a beat when she saw the frighten look on his face. She had only ever once before seen that look, and that was when the elder's put Hizashi in a coma for a month from activating his seal. Seeing that look again made her think the worst, that something had happen to Naruto and it _was _the fox escaping. "Hiashi-kun... please tell me Naruto is alright!"

Hiashi had barely heard his wife as he was concentrating his Byakugan to the limit, he wasn't head of the Hyuga clan for nothing as his skills with the Byakugan were only matched by his brother. His efforts, despite the strain, paid off as slowly his eyes began to see through the dense fog of chakra. Centring his sight on where the chakra was the strongest, Hiashi could make out the outline of what appeared to be a foreign ninja holding onto a small sack and the outline of a small boy with twin tails, obviously Naruto , who appeared to be screaming in pain/rage into the sky. Both were about forty meters away from the south wall of the Hyuga compound. Focusing his gaze upon the foreign ninja and his sack, he could only just make out the presence of a chakra network within the bag. When he identified the chakra however, his heart virtually stopped.

"I see Naruto! He's just outside the south wall! There's someone else with him... I think it's a ninja from the cloud and he's... he's the one to cause Naruto such rage." Hiashi replied to his wife before taking her by the hand and running towards the closest exit to the south gate. Hitomi could do little but trust his word as her Byakugan wasn't as strong as his was, and it didn't provide an comfort to her nerves not be able to see what was happening to Naruto.

"What! What did the cloud ninja do?" Hitomi asked half in shock as she ran with her husband. Hiashi just turned his head towards her and muttered a single word, it was all he could possibly muster amongst his clouded mind as he tried desperately to calm himself down.

"Hinata." That was all that needed to be said before Hitomi's motherly instincts took over and she sped past her husband, all of a sudden sensing where both her daughter and Naruto was.

With Naruto and the Cloud Ninja

The assassin could do nothing but stare in shock as his body was completely paralysed by the incalculable bloodlust and sheer power pouring of the young boy mere meters from him roaring into the sky. He had never felt anything like it before in his life, the limitless killer intent was suffocating and he could feel himself beginning to shake. _'WHAT THE HELL IS THIS... THIS... DEMON! HIS CHAKRA IS STAGGERING! THERE'S NO WAY HE COULD HAVE THIS SORT OF POWER!'_

Naruto roared to the heavans in both pain and rage as the strange power flooded his body and at the same time appearing around him as a large spiral of red flame like chakra. His body feel hot, fiery hot with rage as he could feel various parts of his body shifting and changing. His clawed hands and feet cracked slightly as the bones in them shifted slightly giving them an evil and dark look as his blood vessels in them became more pronounced. The muscles in his body tightened and bulged slightly as they were enhanced by the red chakra. His spiky blond hair spread out more and seemed to because even less tame, the fur on his tails stood on end and seemed to harden, all of these giving him more of a feral look then usual. His thin whisker like marks thickened and became even more visible as they darkened in colour. His claws and teeth grew slightly and became even sharper then before. But out of all of these changes, the most horrifying was the change to his eyes. Gone were the peaceful sapphire blue eyes that could calm just like the ocean, and in their place were blood red ones with slitted pupils much like a cat's, or a demon's.

Along with the rush of power Naruto felt, he could also feel strong emotions within his entire body. These emotions clouded his mind and prevented any rational thoughts, in their place were dark thoughts, urges, needs, desires to annihilate everything and anything around him. Almost like a whispered voice in his head told him so, he knew the only way to rid himself of these overpowering instincts was to follow through with their commands. He needed to kill everything around him, and for some reason that thought made him feel good.

…_Kill… Destroy… Burn… Blood…_ The urges were just too great for the little hanyou, the hunger for destruction was all consuming and he begun to feel his mind slipping away from his control, he was losing himself to the bloodlust. That is until his senses calmed slightly when he once again noticed the scent of blood from his best friend. Resisting the urges and overpowering instincts Naruto lowered his head from screaming towards the heavens and his eyes narrowed when he saw a man a mere ten meters from him.

He recognised this man, but from where he couldn't quite remember, that is until he noticed a small sack held over the mans shoulder. _'THAT'S HIM! HE WAS THE ONE TAKING HINATA-CHAN AWAY! I WON'T ALLOW HIM TOO! I KILL HIM!' _The swirling red chakra around him ceased as his mind became clearer and more focused as he identified an outlet, a target, a prey for his urges to kill. Whatever this power was, he was not going to let it take control of his mind, _but_ he was going to use it to save his friend. He was so focused on his new target, that he failed to notice all of the ninja that had gathered on the surrounding walls and rooftops. But even if he did notice them, he wouldn't have cared. As there was only one thought that was remaining strong within his mind, he wanted nothing more then to kill the man that hurt his friend.

"**You! You hurt Hinata-chan! You wanted to take her away! You were going to sell her! I KIP YOU TO SHREDS BEFORE YOU CAN DO A THING LIKE THAT TO MY FRIEND!**" Naruto's voice was still his own, although it too was influenced by the red chakra. It had become even louder, deeper and was laced with his barely contained rage and had a commanding feel about it. It no longer sounded like the voice of a child, but that of a demon.

The assassin could barely move as he watched the child in front of him roar into the sky as the horrifying chakra altered his body. And when he looked into the child's now blood red eyes, he dropped the sack he was holding from shock. This child was definitely not human, not with eyes like that. And as he continued to look deep into them, he could have sworn he had seen his own death reflected within them. He wanted to run, he didn't want to fight this demon of a child, he didn't care that he would shame himself and his family, he just wanted to get away. But for some reason his body wouldn't respond, so frightened he was of this demon child that he couldn't even overcome his shock enough to move. And it was only by instinct that he blocked Naruto's first rage embowered attack.

With another rage filled roar Naruto blindly charged his enemy, the kunai knives that held him against the wall had long since been expelled from his body from the red chakra. Whatever this power was, not only did it seem to make him far more powerful and stronger, but it also gave him random bits of knowledge, knowledge on how to properly use his body for battle.

Growling viciously as he appeared in front of his enemy, Naruto quickly brought down his clench fist, aiming for the assassin's skull. The assassin brought his hand up by instinct to stop the attack but Naruto just gripped the man's arm with one of his tails before following through with his fist.

The man stumbled back from the force of the blow but Naruto didn't let up and lunged at him again, this time using his clawed right hand, deeply slashing down the mans chest. Naruto landed on all fours directly in front of the man as he howled in pain from having his chest ripped open. But the blood that was soaking the man's clothes just seemed to enrage Naruto more. Jumping high into the air, Naruto pulled himself back performing a backflip in the air, allowing his clawed feet to calve ten straight lines into his enemie's stomach and chest. Naruto was at head level with the assassin as he half completed his flip and used this chance to flick a tail out like a whip directly into the man's face, sending him flying.

The ninja that had surrounded them could only watch in shock as a child of only five years old was virtually thrashing a high chunin of the cloud village. Many of those present were horrified at the sight, but a few were quite impressed by Naruto's display of power. Sarutobi himself was one of those and could only marvel at the fact that Naruto could somehow keep himself under control. He could easily see it in the child's eyes that he was barely hanging onto his own mind and that the pressure and bloodlust was getting to him, but if Naruto could learn to control himself while using this much power at this age, then Sarutobi could barely imagine what he would be able to do as he grew older.

Hitomi, Hiashi, Hizashi, Hisano and a few Hyuga elders stood on top of the closest rooftop to the fight that was taking place below them. Hitomi had seen enough when she saw Naruto whip his tail at the man's face and went to jump down to calm him down and to save her daughter, this was just too much for her to bare, the worry was just too great. But was held back as two arms wrapped around her waist, holding her firmly in place.

"Hiashi! Let me go! I need to help Naruto and save Hinata! LET ME GO!" She screamed as she tried to slap her husband's hands away from her. She just couldn't stand watching that horrible red chakra flow through Naruto's body and her motherly instincts were running a rampage of horrible thoughts through her mind of what could happen to the two children if she didn't intervene.

"No my love, you can't. We don't know if Naruto would be able to handle himself better or worse if there were more people around him right now. Our safest bet for both you, him and Hinata-chan is to just wait. He seems to be able to control himself but that control is only thin and we don't want to disturb it." He said while trying to wipe away the tears that were now streaming down his wife's beautiful face. "And besides, Naruto-kun seems to be handling that traitorous ninja perfectly."

Hitomi _really_ didn't like the idea, but she knew he was right. Naruto was only just holding on to his own mind and he probably could do without the distraction of someone rescuing Hinata. Especially if that was what caused his rage, because then it would be impossible to judge his reaction to Hinata being touched again.

The assassin, now recovered from his shock at the demon in front of him because of the pain surging through his body was finally able to fight back. However, he was feeling an emotion he hadn't experienced in years, not since he was a child. He was feeling genuine fear, fear of being killed by the monster in front of him. Dodging a clawed slash that was aimed for his face, the assassin shifted his body before slamming a chakra enhanced fist into the demon-child's back. Not wanting to give the beast a chance to recover, the assassin threw two handfuls of kunai before rapidly flashing through handsigns.

Naruto slammed hard into another wall, but for some reason it did little damage, and caused even less pain. Pulling himself free, Naruto had but a split second to notice the incoming kunai. And just like all throughout this fight, a thought passed through his mind, another instinct, another piece of knowledge. Following this new instinct Naruto willed the red chakra within his body to his mouth. Releasing the pent up demonic energy in a roar, the kunai sent towards him were sent flying back by a large shockwave caused by the chakra. Pleased with his work, Naruto quickly scouted around with his eyes and ears to locate his now missing enemy.

"Lighting Style: Lighting Ball Jutsu!"

Spinning to the direction that he had heard the jutsu declaration come from, Naruto's reactions were to slow to dodge the giant ball of lighting that slammed straight into him. Screaming out in pain as thousands of volts surged throughout his little body, Naruto was temporarily paralysed from the jutsu and fell to the ground in a heap. However, his vicious growls only increased as did his anger and frustration.

Glancing over to his now paralysed advisari, the assassin applied a simple medical jutsu to his profusely bleeding wounds before diving for the demon in front of him with a kunai preparing to pierce his heart. Naruto's body still working mostly on instinct flicked a tail up to knock the kunai away, and as the assassin fell towards him from overbalance, plunged his left hand straight through the ninja's chest. There was a piercing silence following Naruto's attack and he could have sworn that he heard someone gasp. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto felt a small amount of peace granted to his young mind as he looked up into the eyes of the man he tried to kidnap his best friend. That satisfaction was short lived however, when the ninja he had his clawed hand through disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to be replaced with a small segment of a crumbled wall.

The assassin sighed in relief as he stood up from where he had used a substitution jutsu. Switching himself with that crumbled piece of wall before being struck by that crazed little demon-child most definitely saved his life, such a simple jutsu and yet its usefulness is truly underestimated. Quickly glancing over to where he had last seen his demonic enemy, his eye's widened when he saw the child smashing the segment of wall he had substituted with to absolute pieces, obviously in rage at not getting the right target. Whatever time he expected his lighting jutsu to paralysed the little demon for was definitely a serious overestimation as it barely even lasted a few seconds. Although there were sever burns across his now exposed chest from the jutsu.

When the assassin actually saw the wound on the child however, his fear began to cloud his mind. He could see the charred flesh just flake off to reveal fresh newly healed skin underneath. Shocked, and now fully convinced he was fighting a demon, the assassin's rational thoughts were lost and completely overridden by his instincts of survival. Dashing for the sack containing his meal ticket, he hoped he could reach it in time and just flee while he could. He no longer cared about the demon-child, if he could reach the girl in time he could just use a Lighting Shushin to teleport a good distance away. Even though it was at most a couple of hundred meters, at least the demon-child wouldn't be able to find him.

Naruto roared loudly into the night sky again after pulverizing the section of brick that had landed on him after he was sure he had killed the man who was kidnapping his best friend. Snarling viciously, Naruto looked up to see his enemy charging towards his best friend. Launching himself forward with his newly enhanced speed, Naruto appeared directly infront of his best friend and quickly clamped his hand down on the hand of his enemy that was reaching for the sack.

The assassin screamed in pain as the bones in his wrist were pieced by the Naruto's razor sharp claws. His legs were then quickly bound, each by one of Naruto's tails. The fur didn't seem as soft as it was when the assassin had first seen the little demon, and it seemed to dig into his skin when he tried to pull away. Staring into those red eyes, filled with nothing but bloodlust he could feel something within him snap. Screw the girl he just had to get away and fast!

Feeling his opponent attempt to pull away Naruto tightened his grip, he wouldn't let the bastard escape him, he would only try to take Hinata at a different time. He couldn't deny the feelings and urges in his mind any longer, he had to kill this man.

"**You tried to take her away! You hurt Hinata-chan! I can smell her BLOOD! I won't let you get away! I won't let you come back to take her! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HINATA-CHAN AWAY FROM ME!**" The assassin's eyes widened as he noticed a change in the demon's eyes, they still contained the same looks of uncontrolled bloodlust and rage. But now they contained something more, one could clearly be identified as the look that he himself gets before he murder's his targets. The other look could only be registered as a spark of insanity, almost like the child in front of him was slowly losing his mind to his own overpowering bloodlust.

Naruto smirked as he finally saw a chance to kill his enemy and save his friend. Yanking his tails and hand towards him, the man fell forward onto his knees. Naruto's smirk just grew as he prepared his hand to strike, and in the distance he could have sworn that he heard someone yell out for him to stop, but even with his hearing it didn't sound like anything more then a whisper. Almost quicker then a blink of the eye, Naruto viciously brought his free hand down across the man's face and neck, and even before the assassin had a chance to scream, slammed a fist into his face. Releasing his hold on the assassin just as he struck, Naruto watched oddly satisfied as the man flew back a good fifteen meters before skidding to a halt, no longer attempting to get up.

Not convinced that his enemy was dead, Naruto was glad when he felt another tug at the back of his mind, another piece of knowledge parted to him by what felt like another age old instinct. Listening carefully to the instinctual feelings, Naruto willed the red chakra within him towards his right hand. At first nothing happened, but as time passed and Naruto pored more and more of his rage and anger into his palm, he felt a huge heatwave erupt from it. Images of spiralling blue flame appeared within his mind, the images flashed over thousands of different shapes and sizes of the same blue flame. The images instinctually explaining the flame's use and how to control it. While the explanation was sketchy at best Naruto was able to pull enough meaning from them to understand.

As the images stopped Naruto glanced at his right hand, it mildly shocked him when he saw a bright blue flame just as large as his head dancing on his palm. Fascinated with the beautiful but obviously deadly flame, Naruto had to resist the urge to play around with it. Now was not the time for such at thing however, and Naruto knew it. Facing back at his opponent Naruto growled loudly when he saw the man beginning to stand. Rage once again began to cloud his mind and Naruto charged intent on finishing this fight right now with his new instinctually taught technique. Extending his palm like a thrust into the air, Naruto released the pent up energy of the demonic flame.

"**Kitsune Art: Fox Fire!**" Once again Naruto could have sworn his ears picked up on voices, voices telling him to stop. But even if he wanted to listen, it was far too late to recall his attack. The blue flame exploded off of his palm in an uncontrollable cone shaped wave, melting everything in its path, it's majestic colour veiling it's destructive capabilities. The assassin that just so happened to be the target of the fiery hot flame hardly had a few seconds to identify the raging heat building up behind him, before he too was incinerated.

Time seemed to stand still for Naruto and the observing ninja above him. The flames seem to rage of forever, burning everything within its small targeted area, even stone. Instead of spreading the blue fire just continued to burn until it was sure that it's target was destroyed, almost like it was sentinel. As soon as the flames died down everyone present gasped, as all that was left of the once chunin assassin of the Cloud Village was a smouldering pile of barely recognisable charred flesh. Naruto's eyes bulged slightly when he saw the damage of his attack, but his still raging mind didn't fully comprehend his actions. And what made matters worse was seeing the burnt corpse in front of him caused one of those urges he was feeling to increase ten fold. Roaring again towards the sky in a desperate attempt to rid himself of his still building rage, Naruto then turned towards the nearest living object he could sense. Naruto then dashed towards the small sack still holding an unconscious Hinata.

All ninja on the roofs almost puked when they saw the blue flames finally clear, revealing a clearly melted ninja beneath them. Those that could barely keep their dinner in, soon emptied their stomachs when they felt Naruto's bloodlust increase to unbelievable levels. To them it felt like Naruto wanted nothing more then to rip them all to shreds and devour them piece by piece. So caught up in their fear of Naruto's increasing red chakra they barely had a second to realise that Naruto was preparing to strike the sack containing Hinata.

Hitomi and Hiashi felt their blood run cold as they desperately called out to the raging hanyou, they were completely lost on whether or not Naruto remained in control but they couldn't afford the chance, they jumped down off the roof they were standing on, hoping to stay his hands. But they were just too slow. Sarutobi cursed himself for waiting so long and as soon as he had felt the change in Naruto's chakra, jumped down in hopes of bringing the boy back to his senses. But just like Hitomi and Hiashi, he was just too far away from the little hanyou to intercept him.

Their hearts broke in two as they saw Naruto rapidly slash at the bag five times in quick succession. The sound of claws ripping through fabric alone was enough to almost physically stop both Hiashi's and Hitomi's hearts. Time seemed to slow for Sarutobi and the Hyuga's as each swipe of Naruto's claws into the sack was like an equal blow to their very souls. They had been wrong to allow Naruto to handle the red chakra for so long and now a little girl was paying the price for their foolishness.

Tears flowed freely down Hitomi's face as she was falling mid-jump down from the roofs. She could not form a single complete thought as she watched Naruto's claws rain down upon her daughter. The pain was unbearable as Hitomi's mind recalled a memory of a time she had spent with her daughter, every time a claw struck. As she landed on the ground, her mind steeled itself and she prepared to attack the little hanyou in a desperate attempt to prevent him from attacking her daughter, but stopped however when Naruto suddenly ceased his swipes.

All the surrounding ninja's, including Hitomi, Hiashi, Sarutobi and his personal bodyguards that had jumped down with him, were shocked beyond belief as the sack containing Hinata suddenly and without warning just fell to pieces, revealing a perfectly unharmed but still unconscious Hinata. Clearing indicating Naruto's superior control over his clawed strikes.

Naruto smiled brightly as he saw his best friend finally freed of the sack that held her and he could feel peace finally granted to his mind. The strange red power within him seemed to instantly dissipate and Naruto felt like a huge overbearing pressure had been lifted off of his very soul. The sudden power decrease allowed him to finally feel fatigue and pain from his actions however, and it was a struggled for him just to remain conscious. It seemed that using that odd power drained him of his usually high stamina. Bending down slowly with shaky legs and ignoring the physical struggle it was to even move, Naruto gently lifted up his best friend and almost autonomously began walking back to the Hyuga compound while supporting himself with his tails. His mind still not fully realising that he had just attacked and killed another human being to save her.

Sarutobi watched with a smile as his favourite little blond began to slowly carry said blond's best friend back to her room, and turned to his ninja to dismiss them as they were no longer needed. The gathered ninja were either too awestruck that a five year old had killed a chunin, or addiment to leave their hokage in fear that he was in danger. But they eventually recovered enough to leave upon their hokage's orders. All except a teenage Uchiha who was watching the struggling hanyou with uncharacteristically noticeable emotion, mainly curiosity.

Sarutobi did not bother to instruct Itachi to leave as he could understand the boy's curiosity and interest in another being with as much power as Naruto had just displayed. Instead he asked the young boy to accompany him as he followed Naruto and offer any guidance needed when he finally brought his friend back to her room.

Hitomi and Hiashi could only follow the little hanyou carrying their daughter like half dead idiots as vast arrays of complex emotions spilled from their minds as they tried to fully comprehend everything that had occurred that night. The day had started out so plain, turned fun and exciting then turned nightmarish. All Hyuga that had gathered on the roofs were shadowing Naruto silently, prepared to end him if they though he would try to harm their heiress, but just like the rest of the shinobi that had witnessed the hanyou's display of power they were completely awestruck.

Naruto felt his legs give way under him as he continued to walk towards his friend's room. He didn't know how he was moving or why he was even carrying his friend at all. All he knew was that he was utterly exhausted and wanted nothing more to slip into the darkness that was slowly clouding his eyes. Despite tripping Naruto still retained a good grip on his friend and didn't let her fall, struggling to stand he felt a hand touch his shoulder and quickly glance behind him. The figure that stood before him was nothing but a blur of white and brown and he tried to focus his sight so he could at least make out who it was.

'_Hitomi… is that you? Why are you crying? Why are you smiling at me... did I do something? I… I don't know what's going on… why can't I remember anything?' _Naruto mentally asked both Hitomi and himself, if he had the strength he would have spoken them, but his mouth just wouldn't move.

Glancing up at the smiling face of Hitomi he could have sworn he saw her mouth a 'thank you' before his vision once again blurred. Turning back to face the Hyuga compound, Naruto ignored his blurry eye sight and just followed the scent of his best friend's room. Every step taken was a nightmare in itself to the fast fading hanyou and upon arriving at his destination, Naruto left out a small sigh as he slowly walked up the balcony steps, faintly aware of people being behind and near him ready to help him if he needed it.

Hitomi, Hiashi, Hisano, Hizashi, Sarutobi and Itachi could only watch in amazement as the blond hanyou they were following literally dragged himself through the Hyuga compound towards his friends room. If it wasn't for the sheer conviction and determination to take his friend back to her room they had seen in his eyes they would have helped him long ago. Hitomi and Hiashi had both somewhat recovered from the shock of almost loosing their daughter and perhaps even their hanyou friend and were now both crying in happiness and joy that Naruto had saved their daughter and also that he lived.

Naruto slowly opened the sliding door to Hinata's room and gently placed her in her bed, carefully using his tails to support her properly as he did so. He then used to sense of smell to find the source of the blood he had smelt from her. Those of the adults and Itachi who hadn't seen Naruto's healing gift were shocked when they noticed Naruto lick a small bleeding wound on Hinata's head. And were even more shocked when they saw the wound close before their very eyes.

Hitomi could barely contain her joy and gratitude any longer and ran up the steps to the little hanyou, she stopped suddenly when she heard a low word whispered from said hanyou. "… monster…".

Naruto's head was down when he slowly turned to face the people that had been following him. He was shaking, every part of his body was virtually vibrating as the thoughts and memories of what had just occurred and what he had just done returned to him. The adults watched with heavy hearts as they saw Naruto glance down at his still bloodied hands, and only just caught the faint sound of sobbing. But before anyone that was present could do anything to console him, Naruto lifted his head clearly showing them all the pain that was surging through his body and mind as he finally began to comprehend his actions. He didn't know what to think or what to believe, all he knew was that he had killed someone, he had taken another's life and he was a monster for it.

"Hitomi… Hiashi… Hisano… Hizashi… and Old Man… I-I'm sorry…" His words were deeply laboured and almost seemed to cause him physical pain to speak them. "I'm so sorry… I-I just didn't know what to do… I didn't even t-think… I… k-killed him…" tears fell from his eyes like a burst dam as he once again looked at his bloodied hands, still shacking. "I killed someone… he hurt and w-wanted to take Hinata-chan… but… but he didn't deserve to d-die… I-I KILLED HIM! I'M NOTHING BUT A MURDERING MONSTER!" These were the last words that came from the confused and hurting hanyou, before he was finally granted the peace of unconsciousness.


	14. Chapter 13: Naruto’s Reaction

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Well its been a little while since my last update, this is as you all may have guessed means I have reached the last chapter that I have completed beforehand. I shall continue to right this story until its completion so their is never a fear of me stopping the story short.

To tell you all the truth I wasn't very happy with this chapter which is why I had to rewrite it a few times... but I still don't particularly like it so if any of you dislike it, don't worry you are not alone.

I was also planning to add the scene of the Counsel meeting in this chapter but I decided to leave if till the next one as too many words could really annoy some people.

Anyway, to those that want to know this is the SECOND LAST chapter before the timeskip and then its off to the academy for Naruto and Hinata! The next chapter shall contain the last event that will complete the gradual change in Naruto's personality that I have been trying to do since the start of the story.

Anyway, on with the latest chapter of Curse of a Hanyou, love of an Angel.

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Chapter 13: Naruto's Reaction

The pain. The exhausting. The feelings of almost nothing in your body or mind functioning. These were the only things that Naruto seemed to be able comprehend. His thoughts seemed suspended, removed from any normal timeline. His awareness was nonexistent as there seemed to be nothing around him or within him even there to be aware of. The pain and exhaustion was there, but they too felt suspended from time. How long had he been like this? Hours? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? He didn't know. It didn't matter anyway, as time didn't really seemed to exist for him so he was unable to even think about what the hell was going on. All he knew was the feeling of empty nothingness, almost like his very soul was floating in the sky. At times he could have sworn he felt tugs at his nonexistent body and the odd pain would subside, but even those times were confusing and incomprehensible to the little hanyou.

After waiting an eternity, or a few seconds as he couldn't really tell the difference, Naruto slowly became aware of something other then just nothingness. It was at first just an odd cool feeling. But over time, or in just a split instance as he still couldn't tell, the strange cool feeling began to take on other properties, it began to feel… wet? and almost like it was moving. Trying desperately to focus on the strange wet feeling, Naruto felt odd pulls in the space that he could only guess were around him. Confused and barely comprehending anything, Naruto almost missed the fact that he was now awake and staring at a ceiling. Or what looked like a ceiling.

After a few moments to attempt to gather his broken thoughts Naruto pieced together enough of his mind to realise where he was, and to notice that he was once again in his body and had decent control over it. That's if he had really left his body to begin with. Sitting up suddenly, Naruto glanced around with observative eyes at his surroundings, his ears twitching as they scanned for any out of place noises.

'_I don't like this place. It's that strange sewer again… I remember it from before I woke up in the Hyuga hospital… It… It showed me all of those memories of when the villagers were mean to me…'_ Recalling a few times when the villagers had treated him badly brought up a few of his most recent memories, including his murder. Looking down at his clawed hands Naruto thrust them into the grey water he still sat within in a desperate attempt to rid the thoughts and memories of them covered in blood. Tears began to form and fall from his eyes as he was tortured as he repeatedly watched each action of violence he committed play over and over within his mind._ 'Although now… now at least I know their reason. I truly am a monster…' _

Standing up to get out of the murky water, Naruto refused to look at his hands as he decided he might as well try to find a way out of whatever this odd memory sewer was. As he traversed the seemly endless passageways, he took special precaution to avoid those with any sort of light, be it bright white or red he didn't care. He didn't want to remember whatever memories he would be forced to recall. Even though each corridor was the same grey brick rectangle passageway filled with water to his knees without any distinguishing features except for the ever increasing amount of pipes along the walls, Naruto seemed to be able to navigate them by avoiding those that had those lights that recalled his memories. After what seemed like hours, Naruto actually recognised one passageway in particular. His ears had been tracking what sounded like heavy laboured breathing ever since he awoke and he had followed that sound until he noticed a slightly different corridor with red wispy gas floating within it. There also seemed to be an unusually high number of pipes running to and from this corridor, some seemed to emanate a cool, soft feeling while others emanated a powerful heat.

Slightly curious as to what was so special about this one Naruto took a few steps into the passageway. After about the fifth step however, Naruto froze when the breath suddenly stopped. Only to be replaced with a deep and vicious growl. The growl itself was enough to cause the sewer Naruto was in to shake violently and the little hanyou had a hard time keeping upright. The shaking subsided slightly as the growling lessened but Naruto's body refused to move. The growl felt powerful, but what had Naruto stunned and terrified was the strange resemblance the growl had to the feelings of blinding rage and bloodlust he had felt when he attacked that cloud ninja.

Recalling his actions towards the cloud ninja washed his fears away with overpowering sadness and guilt, and halted whatever movements his tails were making. "Hopefully whatever creature this is might want to kill me… because just like all the villagers always say… I don't deserve to live… I'm nothing but a monster…" he thought out loud to no one as tears once again fell from his eyes while walking further down the hallway. He was an emotional wreck. Some people might be able to reason out with themselves that the cloud ninja's death was a necessary end to save their friend, some might have just been to accustom to death that it didn't phase them and some might even have enjoyed killing him. But to a five year old child that is regularly mentally and physically abused, it was the most horrifying, confusing and torturing experience that could possible exist and because of it, could barely even comprehend his own thoughts.

Fully expecting some horrible memory to torture him or creature to jump out and devour him. Naruto was stunned once again as he emerged from the corridor only to find himself in a massive room easily over one hundred meters tall and fifty meters wide. However, it wasn't the size of the room the shocked him, it was the huge gate in the middle of the room with a large piece of paper with the word 'Seal' written on it as a lock. Naruto's highly sensitive ears pained him greatly as they enhanced the sounds of the breathing, that was obviously coming from behind the gate, to almost deafening levels. He wasn't given a chance to get his ears and shock under control before he was barrelled over by a powerful and deep voice addressing him.

"**So… my jailer finally sees it fit to visit me. Such a pathetic brat you are. You can't even control your hearing… pitiful, pathetic child. If I could get out of here, I'd kill you and feast on your marrow in an instant!**" The great voice boomed threateningly. Despite how powerful and menacing it sounded and felt, Naruto could have sworn that it also sounded oddly laboured. Almost like it was drained and slightly weakened. Turning his attention towards the gate, Naruto tried desperately to see within the darkness behind it.

"W-Who's there?" Naruto called out, clearly terrified if his shaky voice was any indication. The creature behind the gate just gave an annoyed growl in response, almost like it was insulted by the question.

"**You really are a foolish child to ask a question of me! After your pathetic race imprison me here for all eternity and you continue to siphon off MY charka, and you dare to ask such a question! You know who I am mortal!**" If Naruto thought the thing was pissed off before when he first entered the corridor, then his thoughts were like that of a house cat compared to the sudden rage that filled the room around him. Just hearing the creatures voice raised was enough to reduce Naruto to his knees, and it took him a few moments to once again get his fear under control enough so that he could explain to the creature that if he had known who it was then he wouldn't have asked. "**SILENCE!**" The creature roared at him with a vicious snarl. "**DO NOT SEEK TO QUESTION MY WORDS WHEN YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHO YOU YOURSELF ARE!**"

Naruto knew nothing of what the creature behind the gate was on about, but it sounded as if it was telling him that he didn't know anything about himself. That strange remark, coupled with the odd red wispy gas that seemed to draw to him slowly from the gate gave him the clarity in his mind enough so that he could regain some of his usual high spirit. "I know who I am! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future ninja and Hokage of Konoha!" Naruto yelled at the creature while thrusting his fist forward. In response the room just began to shake violently as a slow, dark laugh filled the room and pressed down upon Naruto.

"**You definitely are a foolish child. You know your name, but not what you are! Your names and titles mean nothing to me, but even the mortals of your insignificant village know that you will never reach such a rank. Especially after your murderous actions towards that cloud ninja.**" The creature gave an amused snicker at its last statement. Almost like it was pleased with the tortured and guilt-ridden expression that passed over the little hanyou's face.

"I-I didn't mean to... I… I couldn't fully control myself, I just… I just wanted him to go away and leave Hinata-chan alone! He was going to take her away!" Naruto yelled in his defence, even though he himself knew he was wrong to do so. He had killed another human, and deserved whatever punishment he would received. The creature behind the gates, once again laughed at him, but this time it was as soon as Naruto mentioned his friend.

"**Are yes. Your little Hyuga friend, such a pity about her death.**" The creature waited for a second to watch the horrified expressions appear on the face of the child before it. The creature knew that Naruto's memory was shards at best, and was going to use that knowledge to its advantage. "**Yes… it happened right after you killed that cloud ninja. In your rage you lost control of yourself and attacked your best friend while she was still trapped within that sack. YOU MURDERED YOUR BEST FRIEND!**"

Naruto's whole body shook as he desperately wracked his brain for memories of his fight with the cloud ninja. But the fear that something had happen to Hinata caused his already scattered memories to further fragment and become even more incoherent and out of context. The memories of before the fight were clear, but Naruto was only able to recall parts of the fight and the only thing he could remember after he had killed the ninja was bringing his claws down towards the sack containing his best friend. He did not recall that it was only to release her from the sack nor did he recall taking her back to her bed.

"No… No it c-can't be! Hinata-chan! I… I couldn't have… H-how could I do t-that! H-Hinata-chan!" Naruto's screams echoed throughout the large room as his tears rippled the grey water beneath him. Had he been able to see in the dark and had not been so emotionally wrecked, Naruto would have noticed a very pleased grin on the creature's face.

"**Hahahaha… that's right. You recall what you did don't you? You despise yourself for the monster that you are don't you? You killed a fellow human, and murdered your best friend! It hurts doesn't it? Knowing that you killed the first person to ever show you any kindness, to ever even acknowledge your existence!**" The creature paused for a moment to drink in the wonderful feeling of hearing the cries from the hanyou before it. It was a fair while before the creature spoke again, but when it did, it had a more calm and enticing edge to it. An edge that seemed to be made for conning and manipulation. "**But don't worry little one I know how to make all the pain you feel, all the guilt that is pushing down upon you go away. I can end the suffering that you receive every second of your miserable life.**"

Naruto was too shattered right now to think straight, the pain was just too much for a five year old child to bare. So when the strange creature offered a way to end his pain and guilt, he fell right into its clutches. Lifting his face out from his hands, Naruto turned his tear-filled face towards the gate again. "W-what must I do?" The creature chuckled at how easily it had manipulated its prey and was eagerly looking forward to devouring the foolish child's soul.

"**There are two ways that I can end your suffering. The first would require you to tear that blasted seal off the gate in front of you, but considering you pathetic height it would be impossible. The second would require you to just walk through the gate's bars, and I will do the rest.**" Confused and full of self-loathing, Naruto slowly stood up before nodding his head, indicating his agreeance with the creature. As he slowly walked towards the great gate, images of good times spent with his best friend tormented his mind. He had killed the most important person in his life, and as such could no longer live.

Mere steps away from passing through the great iron bars Naruto's eyes adjusted just enough to see through the darkness before him, if only a bit. With the slightly altered vision, Naruto was finally able to identify the creature within the cage, and the sight alone was enough to freeze the confused hanyou in his tracks. Within the cage was a great Nine-Tailed Fox with bright orange fur with a few black highlights on keys parts of its body, namely the tips of its tails and on its face. Except for it's nine long flowing tails, rather long ears, evil grin and it's sheer size the creature would be easily considered a normal and harmless fox. It wasn't just its size that shocked Naruto though; it was also it's odd stance. It was lying down flat and resting it's head on its paws panting heavily, as if was exhausted. For a few moments the great fox ignored the fact that Naruto had stopped moving towards it, but it wasn't long before it's patience ran thin.

"**What are you waiting for foolish child! Hurry up! Or don't you want me to take away your pain?**" Naruto's answer was drawn out as his mind was still heavily confused and pained, but it wasn't long before he continued walking towards the gate separating himself and the Nine-Tailed Fox. He was stopped mere centimetres from the gate however, when he heard a familiar voice, a voice that brought life back to his fading heart and will to live.

"N-Naruto-kun! A-are you alright!" Called the voice of supposed murdered-by-him Hinata.

Hinata had been watching over her friend almost everyday for two weeks now and Naruto still showed no sign of waking up. Sometimes her parents would come visit him and sometimes Tohru when she didn't have Branch member duties, even Ino and her father had visited and left him some flowers from their flower shop. But none of them visited as much as she did. When she had woken up a fortnight ago she had screamed out for her mother and father to save her from a strange man, but quickly noticed that she was not in the clutches of the strange man but in her own bed surrounded by her parents, aunt, uncle and cousin. When she had asked them what happened to the mean man that had tried to take her from her room, they had explained to her what happened the night before and that Naruto had saved her from being kidnapped by killing the man who had tried to kidnap her. Who turned out to be the ambassador from Kumo's bodyguard. Before they had even a second to tell her of Naruto's condition, she had already jumped out of her bed and ran towards the Hyuga hospital as fast as her little legs could carry her.

When she had arrived in her best friends ward she had been unable to move until her mother caught up to her to guide her in, mainly because of the horrifying amount of machinery that they had hooked him up to. Instead of the usual white, spacious and silent rooms, Naruto's was a dark grey from all the gathered equipment and tubes that held various liquids. When Hinata's mother had guided her close enough to see Naruto's face, Hinata froze and tears burst from her young lavender eyes. His face was a ghostly grey, incredibly gaunt as if he hadn't eaten for a week and held no facial expression; his blood veins were clearly visible and despite his amazing healing powers, large bruises were still visible shadowing his whisker like scar marks. His hair had been cut short so they could check for wounds easier, showing his now unmoving fox ears more clearly then usual. He had looked like death itself and as she reached out and touched his face a cool chill pasted through her hand, and as she gazed at his unmoving and expressionless face only one though could pass through her mind as an odd small flicker of warmth formed within her chest and stomach that she couldn't identify. _'He saved me. Naruto-kun saved me… and now… and now he might die.'_

Since she had first seen him in the hospital she had visited him almost everyday. At first her parents thought that it might be better for her to find something else to occupy her mind with until her friend was in a better condition for visits, but they had seen the worry within their daughters eyes and knew that nothing would be able to take her mind off the friend who had risked his life for hers, and so permitted her to visit whenever she liked as long as it didn't stress her out too much to see Naruto in such a state.

Over the days the machinery that was hooked up to and monitored Naruto diminished until the only thing that remained was his bed, a heart monitor, an IV drip and Hinata's visiting chair. Hinata's worry for her best friend increased with every passing day as she had overheard the doctors explain to her parents that Naruto's chakra pathways had been servery overstretched and may have crippled them forever, preventing him from ever being a ninja. She didn't understand how he damaged them and had asked her mother about it, but she had just been told not to worry about it, which in turn caused her more worry. And it also caused the strange small warmth she now felt when she looked at her best friend lying in the hospital bed, to act up and make her feel even sadder and often almost bring her to tears.

She had no idea what the small but very odd feeling was and was tempted to ask her mother or Tohru if they knew what it meant. It was small and most times hardly noticeable, and it had started when she first learnt that Naruto had risked his very life to save her. Little did the little five year old know, that eventually that odd feeling would bloom into something truly beautiful and provide her life with much happiness and joy, but at the same time be the one thing to truly break her little heart. She was interrupted from her confusion about the odd feeling when a familiar voice made itself known next to her.

"Hinata-san, has there been any change in his condition." Hinata was started slightly by the sudden voice, but quickly composed herself when she realised it was only Itachi Uchiha. Despite his almost constant monotone and calm voice and seemly indifferent personality, Itachi had a strangely friendly nature once you got to know him and seemed to show an odd amount of concern for her best friend, which made her happy knowing that her family weren't the only people who were concerned about Naruto. And Hinata being the kind and angelic little girl she is, easily found Itachi's good side. And despite the fact that they were from opposing clans with equally powerful eye oriented bloodlines and their age difference, they found they could quite easily call the other a friend.

"N-Not yet I-Itachi-san. He still h-hasn't even moved… I'm… I-I'm worried that he m-might not wake up I-Itachi-san." Hinata finished with a small hiccup as small tears formed in her eyes once again. Itachi wasn't an overly compassionate person, but it wasn't above him to try and make his little Hyuga friend feel better.

"There's no need to worry Hinata-san." He said while placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "The Hyuga doctors have said his body is currently quite well and that he has recovered from overloading his chakra coils. All we have to do is wait." As if on queue the machine that monitored heart rate suddenly burst to life and sent an ear piercing alarm through Naruto's ward. Itachi and Hinata both knew that nurses and doctors would soon come running in to see what had caused the massive increase in heart rate, and both knew that it would be best if they leave to give them some space. But as they turned to leave, Naruto's voice caused them to stop immediately in their tracks.

"No… No it c-can't be! Hinata-chan! I… I couldn't have… H-how could I do t-that! H-Hinata-chan!" Hinata was instantly by her friend's side when he spoke, happiness beamed off of her just at the sound of his voice. Looking at his face, covered with cold sweat with tears running down it, she could tell that he wasn't quite awake and was just having a nightmare. Although Hinata was a little worried on what sort of nightmare would cause someone to yell out loud and cry while they were unconscious. Concerned and hopeful that he would wake up, Hinata placed her little hand on his head and shook him gently.

"N-Naruto-kun! A-are you alright!" Almost as sudden as his outburst, Naruto shot up. Almost hyperventilating as he quickly scanned his surroundings. He froze when his eyes met with the face of his best friend.

"H-Hina… Hinata-chan!" He shouted joyously while grabbing his best friend by the hand and pulling her onto the hospital bed for a hug. "Hinata-chan… I-I thought I killed you… I would never do that to you… Never to you Hinata-chan. It was all just a bad dream... it was just a bad dream…" He rambled on with similar such sentences as tears poured from his until Hinata asked what he was on about, it was also at that time that Hitomi, Hiashi and a few doctors came racing in. But Naruto's attention was only on his best friend, even as the doctors began checking his body. One doctor tried to check his tails, but they refused to unbind themselves from holding onto Hinata.

"I-It was horrible… I… I was in this sewer and it seemed like I was wondering around forever. That is until I went through this one passage and I met this weird nine tail fox." Naruto noticed a small gasp coming from the doorway of his hospital ward and turned to face whoever made the noise. His ears dropped low and his head bopped down when he realised it was Hitomi and Hiashi, as upon seeing them he was almost instantly reminded of the murder he had committed. He closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to block out the images that were flooding his mind, images of all sorts of cruel punishments that may await monsters such as him. Unsure of what their reaction would be Naruto was stunned when he felt a hand being softly placed on his shoulder, which was quickly followed by a bone crushing hug and a wet-from-tears face being pushed against his.

Naruto's eyes shot open as his sharp sense of smell identified the person hugging him as Hitomi and because he assumed that her tears were brought on his murder of the cloud ninja he was about to apologise and ask her to forgive him for making her cry. Only to be cut off as her increasing sobs cut into his heart like knives. He always hated making people cry. "T-Thank you… Thank you so much Naruto-kun… I… I don't know what to say but… thank you so much for saving my daughter." Hitomi's joy at seeing the young hanyou that had saved her daughter alive was too much for her to contain and so she could only do the first thing that popped in her mind, and that was to hug said hanyou till he burst.

Naruto was confused at her words and looked up at Hiashi who stood next to his bed for an explanation, but saw only a pride filled smile. This however, only confused the guilt-ridden hanyou even more. _'Why… Why are they so happy? I… I'm nothing but a monster. I killed a man! The villagers were right… now I know why they hate me…_' As more and more memories of the night he had killed the cloud ninja flooded his mind the more his young heart pained him, it was like the pressure of a crumbling damn was building up inside him, pushing and pressing down on him like the weight of the world. That is until eventually the guilt was too much to bear and understand, and like the same crumbling damn he burst.

Hitomi couldn't describe the happiness she felt as she continued to hold close the one who had saved her only child. Throughout her mind she was picturing various scenarios where the villagers were atoning for their mistreatment of the child that had risked his life to save the Hyuuga heiress. The Hyuga Clan held much power in the village and saving their princess would definitely gain Naruto some much needed favour amongst those that would do him harm. Hitomi was so wrapped up in her positive dreams of the near future that she failed to notice the failing mind of the hanyou she held in her arms. That is until she noticed him shaking slightly, almost like he was shivering, and tears began to fall from his eyes. Before she even had a chance to ask him what was wrong however, he pushed her away with surprising force, forcing her to release her hold on him and almost slamming into the wall in the process.

Everyone in the room stood shocked as they witnessed Naruto force Hitomi away from him, even Itachi who had been leaning against the wall Hitomi almost hit seemed surprised. In all the time they had known him, which admittedly wasn't long especially in Itachi's case, they had never seen Naruto react violently to any show of affection. Particularly if that affection was from Hitomi, who they could all safely guess Naruto thought of as his closest thing in his life to a mother figure. Under normal circumstances Hiashi and Hitomi would have promptly told him off and asked why he did such a thing. But when he slowly lifted his face, the emotion they saw told them it wasn't such a time.

Hitomi and Hiashi had predicted there would be a high chance that Naruto might react to his killing negatively; he was after all just a five year old boy who had just killed another person. But nothing could have prepared them for the hurt and emotionally crushed child that sat before them. Tears pored from his ocean blue eyes and as each tear fell, everyone around him could almost feel his hurting heart beat within them. Hinata, who was still sitting next to Naruto wrapped up in his twin tails, gently reached out to see if she could comfort him somehow. In response one of his tails just flicked out and slowly guided her hand away from him, while the other gently pushed her away. Something that shocked everyone around him even more.

"I-I'm s-so sorry… I can't stay here. I shouldn't b-be allowed to… I'm… I'm nothing but a monster!" Naruto's voice was loud and violent in sound, but if anything it was only caused by the emotional pain, guilt and confusion. Hitomi felt her heart almost crush by the tone in his voice; she had heard him refer to himself as a monster and sometimes it sounded like he truly believed his own words. But this time it was different, it wasn't just that he believed it, it was almost like just them being in his presence was like some terrible sin. His broken and shattered emotions spilled out into his words and tears, and Hitomi could do nothing but shed her own tears as she watched Naruto rip the IV drip from his arm and prepare himself to run.

Naruto could barely see from the tears streaming from his eyes, but he didn't care, even if he did he could barely comprehend what was going on around him anyway. In his confusion and pain he forcefully pulled the IV needle from his arm and lowered himself in a crouch before launching of his hospital bed. He couldn't care less what they thought about it, he just needed to get away. The people of the Hyuga clan were the greatest thing apart from the old man to come into his life, and he just couldn't force them to be friends with a murdering demon like himself. As he landed on all fours he sped as fast as his slightly unresponsive legs would carry him, but in his emotional state he failed to notice an unknown figure grab him before he could reach the door.

Itachi had been observing the strange boy with great interest since he had first woken up. He had activated his Sharingan bloodline almost on instinct, his eyes having changed to blood red with three tomoe at thirds around the pupil, to see if he could spot any trace of the power he had witnessed from the boy two weeks ago. As his Sharingan eyes analysed and tracked the little hanyou's each movement, Itachi found himself more and more intrigued about said hanyou and could only marvel at the level of charka he was detecting from the boy.

The Sharingan wasn't any where near as sharp as the Byakugan when it came to analysing charka but it was far better at analysing movements. To the point where it could actually pinpoint what almost any segment of the body would perform over the next few seconds just by analysing its present movements, therefore allowing the user to pre-empt their opponents future movements and knowing what they would do almost before their opponent themselves realise. And it was with this ability that Itachi was easily able to deduct that Naruto's body was far more complicated then the average humans. Not only was Naruto's body fully able to utilize his extra appendages and ears, but his joints and muscles seemed to contract and move in fluid and flexible motions that were far beyond his age. A fact that Itachi found quite intriguing. And it was during this analysis that Itachi predicted Naruto's dash for the door.

Itachi himself hadn't quite made a friendly connection with the escaping hanyou, but he could easily see the emotional trauma he was suffering as it reminded him of his own every time he made a kill. Itachi had made his first kill at the age of eight, a little older then Naruto admittable but certainly no less traumatic. Itachi had been confused and guilt ridden for months after and barely ever left his room, he prayed every day that he would just wake up and it would all have been a dream, but he never did. And it was probably his first kill and those that followed that caused him to distance himself from his family, almost like he was trying to hide himself from his own shame.

It was perhaps this familiar feeling that Itachi decided to intervene with the hanyou's escape, and perhaps try to help the poor boy. Show him that sometimes people are forced to kill to protect those that a special and precious to them. Something Itachi wished his father had done for him on his first kill.

Using his Sharingan, Itachi traced Naruto's quick movements and blocked his escape as he ran for the door. Being careful to avoid the little hanyou's thrashing claws Itachi grabbed Naruto by his arm and gently halted his movements. Naruto, sensing someone unknown grab hold of him, bound the apprehensive hand that had grabbed him with his right tail and lashed out with his free arm. To his surprise his blinded slash was easily caught at his wrist and he was quickly spun around. Naruto's teary eyes gazed up into Itachi's red and black and for a moment Naruto could have sworn he saw the black tomoe within the eyes spin rapidly around the pupil.

Almost like a thousand tonnes of brick had been lifted off his shoulders, Naruto's mind regained some of its clarity and his body's current exhaustion from remaining motionless for two weeks finally caught up with him and he fell to his knees as soon as Itachi's hand had released him. Itachi smiled to himself as he noticed Naruto's posture completely change, indicating that he was now more relaxed. It was fairly easy to administer a simple emotion altering Genjutsu for any Uchiha, and in Naruto's current state of distress it just made it even easier. Hitomi and Hiashi were surprised by Itachi's sudden actions, and were about to interfere, that is until they noticed what Itachi had done and both decided to see what the Uchiha could do to help they favourite little hanyou.

"Naruto-kun." Itachi's voice was straight forward and emotionless as usual, but for some reason it also held a hint of power and command. Almost as if he was trying to just gain Naruto's attention but nothing more. Naruto flinched slightly at the sound of someone he didn't recognise, in fear that this person would strike him, and flicked his tails in front of his face as some form of defence. He could attack the person in front of him, but he was just too confused to think properly for such a thing, one second he was hurt and full of guilt then for some reason as soon as he looked into the eyes of the strange man in front of him, it was like his mind was temporarily separated from him then quickly pieced back together. This strange feeling calmed him down significantly by clearing his clouded mind, but the confusion that followed was almost as bad as the pain.

Itachi knelt down in front of the scared little hanyou and gently moved his tails away from his face, and with his free hand tilted Naruto's head upwards so Itachi could see his eyes. Itachi left his Sharingan eyes active so that he could continue to keep Naruto calm while he spoke to him. So when Naruto again looked up into Itachi's eyes he felt himself being studied and analysed, a gaze that he was constantly subjected to from the villagers. But Itachi's eyes held something that almost none of the villager's did, they held compassion.

"W-Who are you?... What do you want from me?" Naruto's voice was clearer now, an indicator that he was calmer then before. But his eyes showed otherwise, the continual stream of tears and the hurt reflected in them displayed his understandable pain. He wasn't sure why the older boy was here, but he assumed that he wasn't here to hurt him. Even if he did think he deserved it.

"My name is Itachi Uchiha. I'm a friend of the Hokage and your best friend, little Hinata-san." He said while directioning his hand towards said heiress. Who was still sitting on Naruto's hospital bed, however, little tears were slowly dripping down her angelic face at her friends strange actions. "As for what I want from you, well just a few answers to a few questions if that is alright with you?"

Naruto sniffed a few times and rubbed his red eyes to remove the tears that were still clouding his vision. He didn't quite understand why, but he felt oddly compelled to answer the older boy in front of him. And also for reasons he couldn't understand, despite the pain he felt from his murder, right now he felt kind of ok with it. Almost like it was a necessary means to reach an end. This feeling of content with his actions kept his mind and thoughts clear and allowed him to focus on the words that Itachi spoke to him. Something that Itachi was counting on. Naruto nodded slowly to indicate his readiness to answer Itachi's questions.

"My first question to you Naruto-kun, is why you think of yourself as a monster? You displayed a lot of power that night, but why do you assume that your bloodline makes you a monster?" Itachi knew the answer already, but he needed to get Naruto to admit these things first.

Naruto flinched slightly at Itachi's question. It was a topic that had always been a touchy one, but again, despite the pain it caused, he felt compelled to answer the question. "I-It's because I am a monster… I-I killed a man… I killed him! And the whole time I felt like I wanted to! I wanted nothing else but to see him dead! NOW TELL ME THAT'S NOT WHAT MAKES ME A MONSTER!" Naruto yelled angrily at Itachi while tears still fell from his face, displaying his anger and hatred at his own actions, despite Itachi's calming Genjutsu. Itachi considered his answer carefully, and quickly thought of a way to turn Naruto's anger and guilt against himself into something positive.

Virtually disappearing from sight in an impressive display of agility and speed, he reappeared in front of Naruto, gently holding a very shocked Hinata, who 'eeped' in surprised at being moved at such frightening velocities. Itachi gently placed the young girl in his arms next to Naruto before he continued his counsel. "Well, it might have seemed that way at the time and maybe even now. But think of it this way Naruto-kun, if you didn't stop him, would Hinata-san be here today?"

Itachi's words hit Naruto like a tonne of bricks and his eyes widened as his mind displayed all sorts of horrible scenarios that could of happen to his best friend. And unconsciously one of his tails moved up and wrapped its tip around Hinata's wrist. Itachi had a point, what would have happened to Hinata if he hadn't killed the man that was kidnapping her. It was a thought that hadn't occurred to him before, and in a strange way it helped ease some of the pain. But before he had any chance to find any real peace from his murder, other thoughts entered his mind. And unbeknownst to Naruto, these ideas were implanted in his mind by Itachi.

"B-But I didn't have to kill him! I-I… I could have just stopped him and took Hinata-chan from him! But I didn't! I killed him! I killed another person!" Naruto flailed his arms in frustration and anger as tears still pored from his pain filled eyes. Itachi watched in fascination as his Sharingan eyes picked up on little flecks of red Yokai charka appeared within Naruto's usual chakra as his emotions became more erratic and conflicting. Naruto continued shouting all sorts of self hate until eventually his anger rose a little too high and Itachi cut him off as he noticed the red chakra start to increase to levels that could probably turn dangerous.

"Yes, that may all be true Naruto-kun. But look at you now, have a serious look at yourself. You are nothing but a wreck and why is that? Because you are a monster? No, it is because you regret your actions. It hurts you doesn't it?" Itachi watched as the Yokai chakra within Naruto settled down to its usual levels as Naruto's how vicious stance seemed to fall away like his strength. He stood virtually gob smacked at what Itachi had said as new thoughts entered his mind. Thoughts and images explaining what monsters really were, thoughts that were again given to him by Itachi's Sharingan induced genjutsu.

"B-But... I felt good… W-What sort of person could kill… even to help their best friend… and feel good about it… I felt good when I killed him!" Naruto turned his teary gaze to his best friend and pulled her closer to him for some sort of emotional comfort. He didn't understand these strange feelings and thoughts that kept flashing through his head and he needed some sort of help, and his best friend was the only thing that he could really think of.

When Hinata felt her friend's tail pull her closer she leaned in a bit to give him a comforting hug but she wasn't sure what good it would do. He looked so confused and hurt, not at all like she would have imaged he would be like after saving her. Although as much as she didn't like the man who tried to take her away, she didn't think that she would ever be able to kill him, so she could understand her friends pain.

"That was different Naruto-kun, that was the power you were using. It was slightly influencing your thoughts, clouding them. So while your usual thoughts and morals were clouded, your rage made it easier to kill him. But it hurts doesn't it? Knowing you ended the life of another human? Knowing you killed another when you could have just stopped them?" Hitomi was about to intervene as she noticed Naruto's hurt and grieving expression deepens and his tears quicken with every word Itachi spoke. She didn't know what he was trying to achieve, but replaying those select few words over and over would only lead to more pain for the poor hanyou. But just as she was about to, Itachi finally tied all his probing together. "And that's why you are not a monster."

Itachi ended his sentence with a friendly smile, something that doesn't grace his face often, as Naruto abruptly stopped his sobbing and looked up to Itachi with confused, yet hopeful eyes. "I… I'm not a monster? Even… Even after I killed someone? How?"

"You are not a monster Naruto-kun because you regret what you did, it hurts you, it pains you, and it is because of that pain that I know that you will never be a monster. Because a monster is someone who kills just for the point and killing someone, and unlike you Naruto-kun, not only do they enjoy killing but they never feel any remorse for their actions. I'll let you in on a little secret too, but only if you tell me if you think I'm a monster or not?" Itachi waited for a few seconds until Naruto shook his head signifying that he didn't think Itachi was a monster. Which was the only thing he really could do considering Naruto didn't really know him well. "Exactly, I never have been a monster. Although at times I thought otherwise, for I have killed exactly nine people." Everyone present in the room gasped slightly at Itachi's confession. Sure they all knew his talent was well beyond his years and he was already an accomplished ninja but to have already killed nine people at the age of eleven. Well it was a little hard for them to comprehend.

"Y-You… have killed nine people! And you aren't a monster? Why?" Naruto was both shocked and confused at Itachi's statement. His shock was caused from the fact that a boy only about five or six years older then him had already killed nine people, and his confusion was caused from why Itachi seemed so calm in admitting this.

"Naruto-kun, I am not a monster because there has not been one day where I have not felt some sort of pain or grief over those that I have killed. Sure it gets easier to cope with each time you do take a life, but the pain will never truly vanish. For if it does, and a time comes where you can kill without remorse, then and only then will you or I truly be a monster." Naruto stood stunned at what Itachi had said and could barely express in words or thoughts the relief that was surging through his troubled mind at the simple thought that he would never ever, ever be a monster, until he enjoys killing people. Which was definitely not something that he could ever see himself doing. Hinata, seeing a small smile grace her friends face, took this opportunity to thank him for saving her.

"N-Naruto-kun." She waited patiently until he turned his head to face her before continuing. "I-I want t-to thank y-you for what you d-did for me. You s-saved me from the b-bad man, and… and I'm s-sorry that y-you had to kill h-him, even if h-he was a very b-bad man." Hinata finished her little thank you and lunged for her best friend, giving him a big hug. It was this thank you and hug from his best friend that provided the final cog to once again kick start Naruto's shattered mind and he once again returned to the world of the sane. And instead of tears of hurt and confusion, tears of joy flowed from his eyes as he returned his friend's hug.

Itachi smiled at the display of friendship and at his good work at keeping the young hanyou from his destructive self-hatred. Pleased with the results and the analysis he performed on the hanyou with his Sharingan, Itachi decided it was probably a good time to leave. So with a quick general goodbye, Itachi disappeared in a swirl of leaves before anyone, including Naruto, had a chance to thank him.

Hitomi watched with a smile as the Naruto they all new and loved was shining through again and she was a bit upset that she didn't get to thank Itachi for his help. Even though she was sure she could have said similar things to him, she was also sure that Itachi's Sharingan played a huge role as the Uchiha bloodline was not to be underestimated. Looking at the smiling hanyou hugging her daughter, Hitomi figured now would probably be a more appropriate time to thank him now that his mind was more settled.

"Naruto-kun." She called while walking over to him. Upon gaining his attention she saw him quickly jump away from Hinata and promptly lower himself to a submissive stance, all the while mumbling over and over that he was sorry that he pushed her and kept promising that he wouldn't do it ever again. Hitomi just laughed as she picked the little hanyou off of the ground by the scruff of his neck, instantly silencing him. "You are such a silly boy Naruto-kun. It should be me who apologises for not realising how upset and confused you were, plus I know you would never hurt me intentionally. But now that you have calmed down-" Still holding him up by his scruff she spun him around and with one quick swing she smacked him hard three times on his bottom just below his tails. If he was able to make a face while she held him by his scruff she assumed it would be half-way between shocked and confused. "-That Naruto-kun is for disobeying me and calling yourself a monster again!" Everyone in the ward gave a small laugh at the scolding Naruto received, expect little Hinata who was holding her bottom in memory of her last spanking. "And this, is for saving Hinata-chan." In one motion she released him from her hold and brought him in for a bone-crushing hug.

After a minute and a few shouts for help, Hitomi finally released the now gasping hanyou. Causing him to fall to the ground hard. "Hey! Hitomi-san that hurt!" Naruto yelled while rubbing his sore bottom, if he had been quicker he would have been able to use his tails to cushion the landing. Now that Hitomi had given her thanks, Hiashi only felt it appropriate to also thank the little hanyou that had saved his daughter. So walking over to him, Hiashi knelt down and placed a hand on Naruto's head.

"Naruto-kun, on behalf of the entire Hyuga clan and myself, I thank you for risking your life to save my daughter. If there is any way that we can ever make it up to you, never hesitate to ask for we are all in your debt." Naruto just laughed at the formal thank you he received, even though he liked being thanked by people, anything formal always made him feel oddly uncomfortable.

"Nah, its ok Hiashi-san. Besides wasn't it you who said that we should do some things for each other that would improve the relations of our two clans." He stated while grinning with his huge toothy fox grin that seemed to be becoming his trademark. Even though Naruto really didn't understand the whole clan relations things that Hiashi was teaching him, he figured that what he said would have made sense.

"Hehe, your parents would have been so proud of you Naruto-kun. I know you've made me proud." Naruto's toothy fox grin quickly disappeared, and Hiashi thought for a second that he may have said the wrong thing by mentioning Naruto's parents. But when the Naruto's big grin was replaced with something far more genuine and pleased looking, he realised that this must have been the first time that Naruto had ever made anyone he knew say that they were proud of him.

"Thanks Hiashi-san… but can I ask a question?" Naruto waited until Hiashi nodded his agreement before continuing, even though he was really nervous and worried about the answer. Because this was one thing that Itachi had commented on but didn't explain. "Um… Itachi spoke about it and I remember most of it, especially the feelings. But what was that weird red power I used to beat that cloud ninja, and what was that fire thing? Was it a jutsu? And if it was then how did I know it?" Hiashi like the fact that Naruto's one question turned into four, but none the less knew they all deserved an answer. The problem was on how to explain it to him.

'_I could just try and link them to Sarutobi's story as a part of his bloodline… but how will I manage to do it. Even then, he will figure it out eventually and I'm pretty sure he will be anger enough as it is when he finds out everyone had been lying to him his whole life.'_ Hiashi mentally sighed at what he was about to attempt, but luckily for him, the one man that he could use to help him in this situation walked into Naruto's ward at that exact moment.

"Hey Old Man! I could hear you coming and was hoping you would visit!" Naruto said excitably as he leapt up into Sarutobi's arms, giving him a big hug. Sarutobi just laughed at Naruto's energy that was already rushing back to him, even after being motionless for two weeks the little hanyou still seemed to have boundless amounts of energy. The only thing that worried Sarutobi was the questions he had heard Naruto ask. Itachi had just finished reporting to him what he did to Naruto to keep him sane, and Sarutobi wasn't sure if it would be fair to put more emotional pressure on the poor child. But in a way, in the back of his mind he knew that Naruto deserved to know the truth, especially after he had already used the foxes power.

"It is good to see you too Naruto-kun. I had been really worried about you the last two weeks. But luckily little Hinata-chan here kept watch over you for me the whole time, and a very good job she did indeed." Sarutobi said with a smile while Hinata tried to hide her embarrassment from the praise by hiding her face in her hands. "Now, I heard you asking about that power you used to stop Hinata's kidnapper. Be it against my better judgement… but I think it's time you knew the truth." Naruto cocked his head to one side to show his confusion at Sarutobi's words. He couldn't possibly imagine on what he had been lied to about, but he could image all sorts of things he was just never told so he assumed it was something that was just kept from him. Hitomi's shocked gasp didn't help to distract his curiousness any either.

Hiashi would usually leave things like this to Sarutobi, but even he had to question whether or not it would be wise to inform Naruto of the truths they had kept from him. But before he could raise any objections Sarutobi had already grabbed Naruto by the hand and was leading him out of the hospital room. "But I can't explain here. The counsel room would be a more appropriate place, especially considering they wish to speak to you about your rescue of little Hinata-chan." Turning to Hitomi, Hiashi and Hinata he urged them to follow him also, as he knew that Naruto would need all the help and support that could be offered. Especially when he is questioned by the Konoha Counsel. Hinata chose to hold onto her friend's free hand while her parents just followed closely behind the aged Hokage. Looking at the curious face of the little hanyou he held gently and the nervous faces of Hyuga leaders, Sarutobi could only wonder if this was his only choice and if it wasn't, then he wondered if it was the right one. _'Ugh… I'm getting too old for all this.'_


	15. Chapter 14: A Truth Revealed and Nefario

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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**Important Read below**

RIGHT! HERE IS THE FINAL CHAPTER BEFORE NARUTO'S AND HINATA'S TIME AT THE ACADEMY! I hope you all have enjoyed the character development that has taken place throughout the story that will help shape Naruto and Hinata for years to come.

Anyway, I recieved a few emails asking about why it took so long... well have a look at the size of the chapter then try to complain as it is the size of two chapter and well I did explain that I am actually converting this to novel form, and now that I am I must say I have done a terrible job of writing these chapters and am thinking about rewriting and editing them because they are just to big and bulky. But that will be a maybe.

Anyway, I personally am liking the real novel alot more then the fanfiction but I will continue to write the fanfiction because it was requested so by my little sister. So maybe after a year or two of Curse of a Hanyou being completed you might find its novel spinoff in the bookstores. The novel version will be much more original and will follow closer to what life was like in feudal japan then this fanfiction does. Also these 'character development' chapters will be reduced in size.

Oh and for all those that are still asking THE PAIRINGS WILL BE NARUTOxHINATA! THERE WILL BE NO HAREM SO STOP ASKING IF THERE WILL BE OR NOT!

Well I think I'm about done... So after this chapter the academy and their career as ninja's will begin! Then I can finally start on the romance... my personal favorite part of any novel.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot elements within this fanfiction.

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Chapter 14: A Truth Revealed and Nefarious Plans

Naruto arrived safely in the Hokage's Tower and shed a single tear of hurt. Cause even though safely would be the correct word to use, it did not necessarily mean the journey was easy. It seemed the villagers were particularly hateful to him today and while they didn't have the courage, or stupidity, to attack him while he was with Sarutobi and the heads of the Hyuga clan, it didn't stop them from shouting a large variety of hurtful insults and curses at him. He didn't know if their particular moods were caused by the strange power he used or if they had heard about him killing the cloud ninja, but for some reason they just seemed to really be out for his blood. And being only five and only just recovering from a virtually shattered mind it was quite understandable that what they had said had begun to cut him emotionally.

Thankfully Hiashi had either sensed his upset state or had heard enough and just took it upon himself to sort them out. Cause he suddenly stopped halfway through their little trip and boomed over and over again in his 'Superior and Noble Hyuga Voice' that Naruto had saved his daughter, the Hyuga heiress, and had earned the favour of the Hyuga clan and that they should therefore be far more respectful then they were currently being. Naruto had been surprised when the majority of them instantly became silent and he was slightly curious now about what their full reactions were. But at the time he had been to nervous and just continued to hurry to the Hokage's Tower with Sarutobi, Hitomi and Hinata, all the while listening carefully with his superior hearing for any signs of angry villagers approaching.

Sarutobi thought himself a failure as a hokage as he watched Naruto constantly analyse their surroundings for anything that would do him harm. How a child of such a young age could cope with the villagers constant abuse he would never fathom, and it pained his aged heart to see the noticeable behaviour and personality quirks that had arisen in Naruto from such abuse. So refusing to allow the poor hanyou to suffer any more, Sarutobi gently pulled Naruto and Hinata closer and nodded a silent command to Hitomi before he and the children disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Reappearing just outside his office in the Hokage Tower soon followed by Hitomi, Sarutobi gave a small chuckle when Naruto and Hinata fell over on top of each other from the slight nausea caused by the short range teleportation jutsu. Something Naruto didn't share his humour in.

"What's so funny Old Man! That hurts when you fall over like that you know, you could have warned us!" Naruto yelled at his favourite old man while gently helping his friend up with his twin tails. Hinata would have sat up on her own, but she was to busy trying to hide her embarrassed blush from falling over like she did.

Sarutobi just chuckled again at the slightly fuming blond before him, before apologising. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I'll make sure your ready next time ok?" Sarutobi waited for a second for Naruto to calm down and nod his head before continuing. "Besides we are a little late for the meeting and they will be wondering where I am." Sarutobi had barely finished his explanation before Naruto had already bolted ahead excitably while dragging a surprised Hinata with him. The young heiress's face practically screamed 'please tell him to slow down' to the two adults , but both Hitomi and Sarutobi knew that Naruto wouldn't move around too quickly to hurt her so they just laughed and let it slide.

Naruto had walked the many halls of the Hokage Tower many times in his young life as he would always follow Sarutobi around whenever he was brought over to visit, and as such knew exactly where the Counsil meeting room was. So having made almost a perfect beeline for the room, Naruto arrived at the solid two and a half meter high carved mahogany doors that sealed off the meeting room within a matter of seconds. Leaving Naruto almost hyperventilating in anticipation as he impatiently called for Sarutobi and Hitomi to hurry up, while Hinata was just glad that her friend had finally stopped running while pulling her with his tails.

Hinata had to admit that she was pretty curious about what this 'truth' was, although she knew that her curiosity had nothing on her foxy friend's. But still, she really wanted to know, and considering her parents had told her very little on how Naruto was able to save her, she had an insatiable need to know how. Especially since he and Itachi had both mentioned some sort of power that Naruto had used. However, as she continued to think about Naruto saving her and his mysterious power that strange feeling of tickly warmth slowly crept back into her stomach and she quickly abandon her thoughts in confusion at the odd feeling appearing again. So trying to ignore the weird feeling Hinata just stood by her friend and nervously played with her fingers while she waited for the Hokage and her mother to catch up.

Having reached the large doors at his own pace Sarutobi gave a long sigh before gently opening them and ushering the children and Hitomi inside. The only thoughts travelling through his mind were scenarios of how Naruto would cope with the knowledge he and the counsel were going to reveal to him and questions of whether or not this really was the right thing to do to the young hanyou. Thoughts and questions he knew would be running through Hitomi's mind as well.

However Sarutobi and Hitomi thought Naruto would act while entering the meeting room, whether it be by assumption of his hyperactivity a few seconds ago or just by generally knowing him. Whey were both a little surprised when Naruto only crept into the room slowly, holding Hinata tightly by her hand for comfort. They could only guess at why when they noticed all the counsel members present had stopped whatever they were doing and where staring hard at Naruto.

Naruto only had a few seconds to observe the room before his nose was hit by a few dozen unfamiliar scents, something that made him nervous as it meant that he knew none of these people and wouldn't know if any of them were like the other villagers or not. The room itself was quiet spacious, being roughly about three times the size of his living room and had three major sections. The first was at the front of the room, it was a large rectangle greystone desk that was slightly higher then the other desks in the room, it was obviously the hokage's desk. The other two sections were lower desks on either half of the room and Naruto could only assume that one side was perhaps for the villagers while the other was for the ninjas. Just going on by what they looked like.

As Naruto glanced around at the counsel members he was slowly crouching into a submission stance at the glares he was receiving. They were not the usual ones he received from the villagers but they were just as unsettling. Instead of the usual anger and hatred what he saw could only be described as interrogating. They were practically stripping his emotions and thoughts bare and judging him with analytical and judgemental eyes. Hinata was also beginning to get very self conscious under their gazes and pulled reached back to take a hold of her mothers dress for extra comfort. Naruto was seriously considering running out of the room, that is until his sensitive nose picked up a scent that he did recognise and quickly turned his head in the direction of a counsel member he did know.

"Hey Inochi-san!" Naruto called out to Ino's father. And within a second of noticing Inoichi, Naruto's discomfort at the gazes he was receiving virtually vanished as he quickly dashed forward and jumped up onto the stone desk that the Yamanaka leader sat at. Surprising most of the counsel members in the room at his rather high jump. Inoichi smiled brightly at his little hanyou friend whom he was indeed happy to see awake.

"Hello to you too Naruto-kun, it is good to see you awake and lively as ever." Inoichi said while playfully rubbing Naruto's head. The other counsel members frowned slightly at his familiarity with Naruto, but they all let it slide as they had all been told what had happened between Naruto and his wife. "So for what reason do you find yourself being dragged here then? It obviously wasn't to listen in on the boring conversations that happen between all us adults?" Inoichi asked hoping to gain some sort of information as to why this meeting was called.

"Well apparently the Old Man-" One of the counsel members were about to berate Naruto upon hearing him reference their hokage in such as disgraceful way but was silenced by a stern look from said hokage. "-has to tell me a secret that everyone has been keeping from me, and then he said that most everyone here wants to ask me some questions." Inoichi accepted the answer with a sound nod while Naruto curiously glanced around at the other counsel members, his ears twitching almost in sync with his eyes, before jumping down from the stone desk and running back over to his friend. Almost immediately after placing himself back by his friends side, Naruto looked up at Sarutobi expectantly, as if trying to say 'well are you gonna start yet?'

Sarutobi just chuckled slightly at the impatient look the little hanyou was giving him before slowly walking up to his desk and sitting down on the middle seat, then gesturing to the seats either side of him for Hitomi and the children. Naruto excitably bounced up onto his chair to the left of Sarutobi while he used his tails to lift Hinata up onto hers. She was slowly getting use to her friend helping her up with his tails so this time it didn't come as a surprise. Hitomi wordlessly sat on her designated chair to the right of the children and Sarutobi while Naruto and Hinata both stood up on their seats to see over the top of the desk.

"This meeting officially commences now, and as usual no information of what is said during this meeting is to leave this room unless permission is given by all parties involved." Sarutobi waited patiently for everyone in the room to nod in agreeance before he continued. "As you all know exactly two weeks ago the delegate from the Kumo's bodyguard attempted to kidnap the Hyuga heiress, Hinata Hyuga, at approximately 8:47pm. This attempt was unsuccessful as Naruto Uzumaki prevented the kidnapping by killing the perpetrator after he accessed his Yokai Chakra." A few of the counsel members shifted oddly in their seats at this, most knew what had taken place but that didn't mean they had to really like it. Naruto and Hinata on the other hand were down right confused as to what this 'Yokai Chakra' was that Sarutobi was talking about. Confusion that was more visible in Naruto as the movement of his tails changed completely and his face screwed up tight. Almost like he predicted their confused Sarutobi turned slightly and nodded towards them with a smile, indicating he would tell them soon. "Now as was requested Naruto Uzumaki was brought here before you so that whatever questions you have for him could be answered by him directly. The questions could be related from anything from his past, to his bloodline, to his recent rescue of Hinata Hyuga." Sarutobi's face suddenly darkened and he narrowed a glare at each individual counsel member before stating his ruling on the questions. "_But_ I do not want any questions to have any sort of malignant aspect to them nor are they to be anything above what a five year old can comprehend. I do not need to remind you all that bias towards Naruto concerning certain _events_ that happened in the past will _not _be tolerated. Am I clear?"

A resonating 'Hai Hokage-sama' was all that was heard from the counsel members before they each quickly debated amongst themselves on what questions should be asked of the little hanyou. They all knew better then to let their personal feelings towards Naruto get the better of them which is the only reason why they were on the counsel. This is because each and every one on the counsel helps Sarutobi govern different sections of Konoha. Because of this, regardless of the issue being dealt with, they all know that absolute unbiased decisions must be reached if they are to continue to improve Konoha for the better. As the saying goes the needs of the many outweigh the few. So even though a few of them may hate Naruto for what he is and holds, in this counsel room nothing shall be held against him. Well, unless they wanted to face the wrath of the hokage that is.

The counsel would often prevent Sarutobi from helping Naruto directly and pushed for him to be as alone as much as possible. They didn't do this to be mean or spiteful to Naruto, they did this believing that if they kept him as far away from the villagers as possible then it would help calm the villager's fear of him and overtime may allow them to accept him if they didn't ever witness him possibly following his more demonic side. It also meant that they would all be safe if he ever went on a rampage because he wouldn't have formed any bonds or grudges against anyone particular in the village. Overall though most of the counsel felt sorry for Naruto's burden and had great respect for the young hanyou for being able to endure the daily treatment he receives from the villagers. The half of the counsel seats that were held by ninja clan heads also admired Naruto for his impressive victory over Hinata's kidnapper. But all of them were a little wary of the treatment that Naruto received daily, their plans were failing and they really were starting to reconsider if forcing solitude on the young hanyou was the best decision that they had made or not. Especially if he grows to hate those around him because of their treatment towards him.

Once they had finished discussing amongst themselves they notified Sarutobi that they were ready, who then encouraged Naruto to stand in the middle of the counsel room so they could ask their questions. He also promised the little hanyou that he would explain everything once all the questions were finished. Although Naruto, being someone of very little concentration skills, had missed or ignored what Sarutobi had said about the middle of the room and just jumped up from his chair onto the desk in front of him. Landing gracefully he sat in a fox like crouch, happily waving his tails around while he waited for the questions.

Most of the Ninja side of the counsel just inquired into his knowledge of his 'bloodline' and what he believed he was capable of while the Civilian side inquired into his unfair treatment he receives from the villagers, shop owners and the like. Once most of their curiosity was sated they moved on to the more important questions, those that dealt with his defeat of the Cloud ninja.

"Naruto-san, do you know what the power was that used to defeat the Cloud ninja was? And also what did it feel like while you were using it?" Asked some random counsel member from near the back. Naruto frowned for a second as he contemplated the question, his fragmented memory meant that he didn't really have a lot to go on. So he just left it up to gut feelings.

"No. I don't really know what it was, Old Man said something about Yokai… whatever that is." Naruto lowered his head and looked deeply at his clawed hands as he thought on what it was to use that weird 'Yokai'. Almost like he was remembering what it was like to have them stained in blood. His voice was significantly lower and when he spoke again, and his tails were moving in small slow circles, indicating his confusion at his own thoughts. "Whatever it was though… it felt powerful. It felt like that with it, I could do anything. Like there was nothing that could stop me, it made me feel unbeatable. Almost like I could do anything to anybody and not ever have to care about someone beating me. _I liked it_."

The counsel members all shifted slightly in their seats when they heard the way he declared that he liked it. They had always been worried on how Naruto might turn out and all sorts of worrying images of him destroying Konoha flashed through their minds when they thought of Naruto actually liking his demonic power. Their minds were quickly put to ease however, when Naruto looked up from his claws. The emotion they saw within his eyes, coupled with his shaking tails and the teary expression that was forming on his face made them all think the same thing. Naruto's power horrified him.

"But… But I hate it too… I-I don't ever want to use it again. It may have helped me save Hinata-chan… but it scared me. It felt like an evil anger was moving all through my body… It hurt and it made me anger, angrier then I have ever felt. I-I wanted nothing more then to ripe everything around me to shreds… I couldn't think right and I didn't feel like I had a lot of control of myself, that's what scares me…" Images of himself mindlessly attacking all his friends and everyone that was close to him in an uncontrollable outburst of rage induced by his strange 'Yokai Chakra' flashed through his mind, causing tears of fear to fall from his eyes. "I don't ever want to lose control of it… it just seems too evil and powerful… I don't want to hurt anyone, especially my friends. Maybe… maybe if I learn to control it better, then one day I may use if for something good." He said while turning to look at his best friend and then Hitomi. His body still shaking slightly, indicating his fear to be real.

Most of the counsel members smiled brightly and nodded thankfully at Naruto's description of his power, the ninja side of the counsel was especially impressed by his reluctance to use his demonic powers until his control was better as they all knew the importance of restraint on the battlefield. As someone who lost control of themselves and/or their emotions was usually an easy target. Sarutobi seeing the young hanyou in distress reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Naruto jumped slightly at the sudden contact but calmed down considerably when he realised who it was. Slightly emotional and tired of all the questions and confusion Naruto decided it was about time he found out what everyone had been keeping from him. "Old Man, I want to know what this Yokai Chakra is that you have been talking about. And I want to know what you have been kept a secret from me. Is the Yokai Chakra part of my bloodline?"

Sarutobi's eyes softened as he gazed into the confused eyes of his grandson in everything but blood. He could see the hurt and confusion that had built up over the last few hours and despite what he thought was best, he knew it was _right_ to tell the little hanyou everything. Starting with his bloodline. "No Naruto-kun, it has nothing to do with your bloodline. In fact… you don't even have a bloodline. I lied to you, you never did and never will possess a bloodline." Sarutobi watched in guilt as Naruto felt the impact of the first bomb to be dropped. Naruto's tails immediately stopped their movements and fell dead to the floor, his ears drooped down and he pulled his arms close to himself and he desperately tried to comprehended his Old Man's words. His was one of the most important people in his life and his bloodline was Naruto's only source of pride. But right here and now, his grandfather figure had taken his pride away and admitted to lying to him All in all he looked like an everyday child that just had their puppy die.

Hinata gasped when she heard what Sarutobi had said and she felt horrible for her best friend, and tried to climb up on the bench to hug him. Naruto noticed this but was far to confused to help her up, he didn't notice however the fearful and worried looks the counsel members were giving himself and Sarutobi. Fear caused by the information that Naruto was about to be told.

"B-b-but… w-what are t-these and these f-from." Naruto asked while pointing desperately at his tails and ears. Trying with all his might to form his words correctly as tears quickly filled up his eyes.

Sarutobi gave a long sigh as he prepared himself for whatever might happen when he answered Naruto's question. He knew what would have been asked and he knew what he would have to say, he just wished that Naruto had been older. "To explain that to you Naruto-kun, I have to first tell you the truth of what happen on the night you were born. You remember when I told you the story of what happened when the mighty Nine Tailed Fox attacked the village." He waited patiently while Naruto gathered himself a little and gave Sarutobi his undivided attention before continuing. "Now what was told to you and the rest of your generation was that the fourth hokage killed it. This however… was not the entire truth. You see the fourth hokage was powerful yes, maybe even the strongest hokage the Village of the Leaves had ever seen. But even he could not kill the Fox."

Naruto's already confused mind couldn't handle many more revelations as his pride and joy had already been stripped from him, so when another confusing thing was said Naruto jumped at the opportunity to ask a question. "What? But I thought you said that he killed it? What does this have to do with me anyway… I'm confused." Naruto's question sounded more like an emotional outburst then anything, but Sarutobi was glad for it for it meant that Naruto was still sain.

"I was just about to get to that Naruto-kun. Anyway, as I said he couldn't kill the fox but that didn't mean he didn't defeat it. You see Naruto-kun the easiest way to defeat a demon and/or spirit is to seal it into something. Now the problem was that the Nine Tailed Fox was just too powerful and its chakra was to massive to be sealed within an object, it had to be sealed into something with a chakra system of its own but not developed enough that it would reject the fox's chakra. And so a newborn baby was chosen to imprison the demon within its body." Before Sarutobi could finish his explanation, Naruto's passionate side forced him to jump and ask as many questions about the poor child.

"What! How could they do that to a little baby? They are probably all lonely and probably always picked on. Tell me who it is Old Man, I'll find that person and be their friend!" Naruto proclaimed as he briefly forgot his confusion and hurt of his own problems. Sarutobi smiled at Naruto's compassion but that smile quickly vanished.

'_Close Naruto… I just hope that you will someday be able to forgive me for keeping this from you, but I thought at the time it was for the best. I also hope you will one day be able to forgive your father…' _Before he spoke, Sarutobi gave a quick glace around towards the counsel members, he could see that they were all just as worried as he was, just maybe on a less personal level then himself. "It is good to see you are growing up as such a nice person Naruto-kun, but I won't need to show you the person as you already know him. The child Naruto-kun… it… it was you." He admitted while staring straight into Naruto's eyes to gage his reaction.

Sarutobi had imagined countless ways of how Naruto would react once told the truth, but nothing could have prepared him for the guilt that pressed down upon his very soul as he continued to stare into the now dulled eyes of his grandson. Hinata was also too shocked to do anything to help her friend, although her eyes were filled of tears instead of the devoid of life look Naruto had.

Naruto didn't know what to think, hell he wasn't even sure if he could think. He stood completely still, not even his tails or ears twitched as his mind replayed over and over again what Sarutobi had told him. Thoughts, images and memories broke free from the deepest recessive of his mind and he collapsed onto his knees. Holding his head tightly with his clawed hands, Naruto screamed in pain as all his most horrifying memories tore his mind apart, all of them somehow making sense now, thanks to that small piece of knowledge.

'_Demon!'_

'_YOU KILL MY FAMILY!'_

'_HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!'_

'_Hay look guys! Their goes the little demon! Lets kill it!'_

'_You will never be accepted by anyone! You are nothing but a demon!'_

'_MONSTER!'_

'_Who would want to be your friend?'_

'_Go away! We don't want any of your kind here!'_

'_That's right! Suffer! SUFFER LIKE YOU MADE ME WHEN YOU TOOK MY WIFE AWAY FROM ME!'_

'_It hurts doesn't it! But nothing I can ever do to you will hurt like I did when you killed my son! NOW DIE YOU MONSTER!'_

'_Everything… everything! It all makes sense… They all hate me! I-I'm nothing but a monster! A… Demon! I know now! They all think I'm nothing but the fox! It explains everything… the villagers hurting me… no one wanting to be my friend… everyone always treating me worse then dirt. M-maybe even that weird giant fox I saw in that sewer… was… was it my mind I was in… Why! Why did it have to be me! What did I ever do to be picked to be a demon! WHY ONLY ME! ARGGHHH!' _

Naruto continued to scream in pain as more and more horrid memories and connections were brought into his conscious. Hitomi had jumped from her seat as soon as Naruto had started screaming and had helped her daughter up onto the stone desk, both of them hugging one part of Naruto, somehow hoping to ease the strange pain that he was under.

"What's wrong Naruto-kun? Are you alright?" Hitomi called to the young hanyou screaming in front of her.

"M-mummy what w-wrong w-with Naruto-kun." Hinata asked while gently tugging on one of his tails in some hope to distract him. She was still quite shocked to hear that Naruto had the Nine Tailed Fox sealed inside him, but right now she was more concerned with what was hurting him.

Inoichi was about to jump over and see if their was a mind jutsu he could do to help Naruto calm down, as he sense Naruto's screams were pain from some sort of mental collapse. But before he could, Naruto's screams stopped as suddenly as they started. But in their place was the gut wrenching sight and sound of Naruto crying his little heart out as the hurt from the memories and this new revelations took its toll.

As Naruto returned from his brief venture into his mind he collapsed onto his knees and hugged himself closely with his arms, his only thoughts that remained were that of comfort, he needed something or someone to hold close. Feeling his tail being tugged on slightly he moved it around whoever was tugging on it and pulled them close to him. Hitomi and Hinata called out to Naruto gently, but through his sobs he heard little of what they said. He was more focused on the horror that was caused from knowing why everyone treated him the way they did.

"I-It makes sense… so much sense… a-all this time that everyone hurt me. They would yell at me, hurt me and… and call me a m-monster, a demon! All this time, it… it was because I have the fox sealed within me…" Naruto cried out to himself as he clutched his gut, almost like he could feel the fox within him now. "These claws, these tails and ears… everything… everything is from the fox. All this time they said it was me who killed their loved ones… T-they were right… I am… I am nothing but a demon! I'm nothing but the Nine Tailed Fox!" Naruto yelled out as he once again clutched his head, trying desperately to push the horrid thoughts of himself as the fox away, he would have never expected to be pulled from his horrible thoughts and self destruction but a loud and quite painful slap to the face.

Everyone looked on in shock as Hitomi pulled back her outstretched hand, showing a very red handprint on Naruto's face. Naruto for one could barely comprehend what had happened, one minute he was being tormented by his once forgotten memories the next he was feeling like his face was on fire. Touching the sore mark on his face, Naruto quickly glanced to the closest object that could have slapped him so, when he turned to look at Hitomi he quickly bowed down in a submissive stance, his face virtually touching the top of the bench when he saw the anger on her face.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" That was it, Naruto virtually shit himself when he heard her tone. Their was only one other time she used that tone and his full name and that was when he had accidentally hurt Hinata-chan and had called himself a monster. "What have I told you about how you talk about yourself?" She commanded to him.

Naruto was shaking slightly in fear of what she was about to yell at him for, but thought it was best to try and answer her question before she got even more angry. "U-um… you er… said not to call myself a monster? But I didn't Hitomi-san! Why are you angry?"

"I did say that, but you just called yourself something worse! You called yourself a demon. Are you a demon Naruto-kun?" Naruto whimpered slightly at the scolding and attempted to answer her, but Hitomi wouldn't have it. He had just recovered from one mental collapse and she wouldn't let him suffer another and so cut him off before he could speak. "No you are not! You are Naruto Uzumaki, a citizen and eventual ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village. I don't care that you have the Fox sealed inside you, you are just its jailor, you keep us all safe by keeping it sealed. You are kind, gentle and caring, things that demons usually aren't, you even saved my daughter. I never did and I never will think of you as the Fox, if anything the closest thing I could think of you as is a son in everything but blood."

That did it for Naruto, the thought that Hitomi could consider him as a son broke him into fresh tears, but this time tears of joy. And faster then anyone could have guess was possible for a young child of five. Naruto jumped up into Hitomi's arms, hugging her with all his might. And luckily for Hinata who had, up until then, still been wrapped up in Naruto's tail, was released from his death-like grip when he leapt.

Hinata watched as Naruto cried his heart out into her mother's shoulders unsure of what to think about this new revelation about her friend. One side of her mind she was extremely terrified of the fact that Naruto held the all powerful Nine Tailed Fox within him and was sort of worried that the Fox could somehow escape and kill them all. But the other side of her mind was furious that the villagers could mistreat her friend for something that was not only out of his control but also because he was keeping them safe by just existing. And regardless of what he held within him, he was and will always be her best friend. Nodding silently to herself that she would never follow the villagers example and hate him for what he holds, she tugged gently on his tails to get his attention.

Naruto felt Hinata tug on his tails and jumped back onto the bench to see what she wanted. She recoiled slightly from fright of his sudden movement, but Naruto misinterpreted her actions as fear of him and a crushed look appeared on his face. "I… I'm sorry I s-scare you Hinata-chan… I'm sorry… so sorry. I'm not the fox, you have to believe me." Naruto pleaded as he slowly edged towards Hinata, but stopped suddenly with a confused look when she giggled.

"Y-You are s-so silly N-Naruto-kun! Y-You are m-my best f-friend, and y-your not the f-fox. Your just a l-little fox b-boy who happens t-to keep a b-bigger fox sealed i-inside them." She said while shyly moving forward and rubbing his ears, one of her favourite ways of comforting her friend.

Naruto was overcome with joy that his best friend accepted him and hugged her tightly as he spun around shouting 'Thank you' over and over again. Most of the counsel members smiled at the pure friendship they could feel from Hinata and Naruto and any doubts they had that the laws they set to keep him away from people was the wrong thing to do quickly vanished. They had kept such a kind and caring child from the villagers and from happiness that was so rightfully his, and most of them felt quite guilty for it. But there was still some that held their hatred for Naruto.

Once Naruto calmed down enough and he had placed a now red faced Hinata down another question came to him, one that he wasn't to sure if he would like the answer to.

"Hey Old Man, you still haven't told me why I have these ears, tails or claws yet. And what is that Yokai Chakra you kept mentioning?" Naruto asked with an impatient pout as he quickly swished his tails in emphasis.

Sarutobi smiled slightly when he heard Naruto's tone, it seemed that the young hanyou had quickly recovered from his shocking revelation and was somewhat back to his usual cheery and bouncy self. "Well that's quite easy to answer now Naruto-kun, the reason you have them is because you are what's called a Hanyou." Chuckling slightly at Naruto's confused face, Sarutobi thought it wise to explain in greater detail, lest he let Naruto's mind try and figure it out incorrectly.

"You have heard the term Yokai creatures used before I believe Naruto-kun, and the easiest way to describe those creatures is either as a spirit or demon. Now most Yokai do not care much of the world around them and tend to just leave things alone. However there are also a fair few who love nothing more then to cause havoc and destruction within our world. Now a Hanyou is the offspring of any Yokai and a human, in other words a Half-Demon." Seeing Naruto's eyes widen in horror and the worried expression that crossed his face, Sarutobi quickly continued his explanation before Naruto came to the wrong conclusion.

"_However_, this was not the case in your instance Naruto-kun as neither of your parents were a Yokai. When the fox was sealed within you, its power was too much for the seal to contain properly and its Yokai Chakra leaked out and altered your body. The result of that is that you are a Kitsune Hanyou. Having all the powers of a normal Yokai Kitsune, but with human compassion. Now as to your question of what Yokai Chakra was, well it is really just the power the all Yokai creatures possess, your body is able to produce it naturally as you need it to stay alive but you also borrow some from the Nine Tailed Fox."

Images of the fox Naruto had seen trapped within that odd sewer flashed in his mind. All that red wispy gas that was constantly being drawn to him, and the really worn out fox behind the cage that claimed that Naruto was stealing its chakra all made sense. Glancing at his clawed hand he flexed them a few time as the information slowly sunk in. _'I'm… I'm a hanyou eh?… a half-demon/spirit? Well, I guess that explains a lot… I'm nothing but a demon after all…' _ Naruto glanced to both sides of him and observed the smiling faces of his best friend and her mother. The caring looks he saw within their eyes, they believed in him and cared for him regardless what he held and was. These were some of the first people to ever accept him and he knew that Hinata's opinion of him wouldn't change just because she knows he's a hanyou. And if they didn't care about what he was, then why should he.

"I… I understand now. Everything makes perfect sense, thanks Old Man… I sort of know why you didn't tell me, it's a lot to take in isn't it?" Naruto asked rhetorically, his voice sounding worn out and tired. "And that why you made it a law for no one to ever speak the truth to anyone else?" Pausing to observe Sarutobi shocked look, Naruto just laughed half-heartedly before explaining. "Hehe, you didn't think I would figure out that part did you Old Man? Well with everything else it is kind of easy to figure out, especially because I would always listen in to what the adults said about me."

"Yes Naruto-kun, that is why I created that law, I had hoped that the bias views of the adults of the village wouldn't rub off on their children if they weren't told the truth. I had hoped to give you some sort of a normal childhood, but it seems I have failed. Please forgive me…" Naruto just laughed and told Sarutobi, that he was forgiven as long as he paid for his next ramen bill. Which in turn caused Sarutobi, Hitomi, Hinata and Inoichi who had heard about Naruto's love for ramen, to join in on his mirthful laugher.

When the laughter died down a serious and determined look passed over Naruto's face before he turned to Sarutobi to ask a simple request of him. One that would change his life forever. "Old Man… I-I want to tell them. I want everyone in the village to know what I am, I don't want anymore lies and… and I want them to know that I am not what they all think I am! I want to prove to them that I'm not just a demon! I want them to acknowledge me for who I am and what I do and not just their stupid views on demons!"

Sarutobi nodded kindly before patting Naruto gently and ruffling his hair. "It shall be as you ask Naruto-kun, I just hope you know what you're doing. And for some added political support I will allow any council member that wishes to support you to be present when you make your announcement." Turning to the gathered counsel Sarutobi addressed them as a whole, explaining what was to take place in a few hours and that anyone who wished to offer their support should meet on the roof of the Hokage Tower. And with that he adjourned the meeting. Approximately just over half of the gathered members rose and gave a polite bow to Naruto before vanishing in a swirl of leaves. The remaining members just gave Naruto the usual death stares that he was use to, most of them infuriated that during the whole meeting they did not get even one chance to hurt the boy beyond what was told to him by the hokage.

"And now I believe you want to know on how you used all that Yokai Chakra and that jutsu when you saved little Hinata-chan here?" Upon seeing Naruto nod vigorously Sarutobi quickly commanded a few Anbu that had been posted around the room to gather the adults of the village at the main square before he began his explanation to Naruto and Hinata. Hitomi, having already heard the explanation before, just decided to stay with the two children for support.

Six Months Later

Naruto stood perfectly still as he cleared his mind of all thoughts. His ears twitched slightly as he listened intently to the sound of his own breathing, trying desperately to calm himself down. It had been six months since Hitomi had announced to himself and Hinata that she was three months pregnant with Hinata's little sister and Naruto could barely control his excitement. He always liked making new friends and especially relished the idea of possibly being a big brother figure to the soon-to-be newest addition to the Hyuga family.

So doing what he usually did when either stressed, upset, angry, nervous or excited Naruto was currently training in the Hyuga Gardens by focusing whatever chakra he could control within his body to his hands in a desperate attempt to once again try and learn his kitsune art of Fox Fire. After learning six months ago that he was a kitsune hanyou and that he had inherited the abilities of a kitsune, Naruto had been training for hours each day to uphold his promise he made to the people of Konoha and learn to control his Yokai Chakra.

Recalling that difficult and life-changing event caused Naruto's meagre control on his chakra to slip away, ending his potential jutsu. He sighed heavily as his thoughts once again wandered to that fateful day, he could never really understand why it still affected him after so long.

Flashback

_Naruto nervously stepped forward into visual range atop the mighty Hokage Tower as Sarutobi had introduced him and announced to the villagers below that he had something he wished to say to the whole village. The whole city of Konoha could be seen directly below him, and the main square was packed to the full as virtually every villager had gathered for his announcement._

_Naruto felt tears well up in his eyes at the uproar that occurred when the villagers could see him. Some yelling horrible insults and screaming for his death, while others cursed his very existence. Naruto stepped back slightly as his usual confidence started to leave him. Something Sarutobi must have sensed._

"_SILENCE!" Sarutobi bellowed at the populace of Konoha, his incredible wrath was felt within his single command and silence quickly ensured, except for a few whispers and murmurs throughout the gathered crowd. "Naruto Uzumaki is here on his own free will to address you all on a matter of high importance! You have all felt the fox's chakra two weeks ago and many of you are after an explanation. He is here now and I expect you to give the _**jailer**_of the Nine Tailed Fox your undivided attention and utmost respect!'_ _A few within the crowd nodded quickly fearing the hokage's wrath, but most just looked on indifferently. He had ordered that only the adults of the village who were present during the fox's attack were to come to the announcement, this ensured that no one who didn't know of Naruto's secret would cause an uproar._

_Naruto once again stepped forward and with a quickly glance for comfort at Hinata and Hitomi to his left Naruto began his announcement. "As you all know my name is Naruto Uzumaki. Five years ago the Nine Tailed Fox was defeated by the fourth hokage by sealing it into a new born baby… me. I now know everything that was hidden from me to help hide me from those that would hurt me thinking that I was the fox. But I am here to tell you all that I… I want that law abolished. I want everyone to know that I am the jailor of the Nine Tailed Fox, even though I was changed during the sealing and became a Kitsune Hanyou… I-I want to prove to you all that I am nothing like the fox, I want to prove to everyone that I am not evil. To do this I will learn everything I can to control my demonic yokai powers and my yokai heritage. I will prove that you were all wrong about me! That I am not a monster or a demon! I will prove that I am nothing but Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou! And I will prove this to you by protecting everyone in this village!'_

_There was no clapping, no applause, no cheering, just pure shocked silence. Naruto looked down at the shocked crowed below him and used his sharp sense of sight to observe the reaction, some of the populace were completely shocked by his announcement and couldn't make up their minds on what to think but most still held the look of sheer hatred and barely contained rage and disgust on their faces. But no matter on how many people he saw that gave him that look, he couldn't help but smile softly when he saw maybe one or two people actually smile at him. Perhaps he had already proved himself in there eyes._

_He walked away as tears slowly began to leave his eyes. Hitomi placed a hand on his shoulder for comfort and Hinata shyly held his arm to let him know she was there for him. That was it, the truth was out to everyone, and now all the children would hate him just like their parents. But at least with the truth known to all he would have a chance now to prove them all wrong, to show them all that they were wrong, and they would one day respect him and treat him like he had always dreamed they would, as a human being._

Flashback end

Naruto shook his head of the memories and started concentrating on his jutsu again. So absorbed by his train that even his super enhanced hearing and sense of smell didn't detect a small girl observing him from behind a nearby tree.

Hinata watched with a bright smile as her best friend once again attempted to perform his Fox Fire jutsu. She was always amazed at his persistence at everything he did, even when he made virtually zero progress. She didn't know why, but just by watching him she could always feel her own confidence sky rocket whenever he failed and got back up to try again. It was almost like a motto of his to never give up and she greatly admired that feature of her friend, because it was something that she too wanted to be able to do so she could continue to prove to the elders of her clan that she was worthy of her title as Hyuga heiress. So enthralled by his training, Hinata had completely forgotten the reason she had come to get him.

Eventually feeling a descent amount of chakra within his hands Naruto quickly perform the three hands signs needed and thrust his hand forward while announcing his jutsu. "Kitsune Art: Fox Fire!" Naruto barely felt his hand even warm up, meaning that he had once again failed his jutsu. Stamping up and down in his own version of a frustrated tantrum Naruto started to yell at his hands, calling them stupid. The weird conversation and insults that Naruto held with his hand caused Hinata to giggle slightly, alerting Naruto of her presence. "Hinata-chan!" Naruto called excitably while he ran over to his best friend. "What are you doing here? I thought you were looking after your mum."

Hinata blushed lightly at being discovered, but her blush quickly disappeared only to be replaced with a very excited smile. "Oh! I-It's mother! S-She wanted m-me to get you! She s-says that she m-might be having t-the baby soon!" Naruto had always found it oddly funny when his best friend stuttered even when she was really excited. But now wasn't really the time to laugh.

"What! Really? Quick lets go Hinata-chan! I'll race you to the hospital!" Naruto called out behind him as he had already taken off on all fours, intent to be there to see Hinata's little sister as soon as possible. Hinata however, was not very impressed that her friend wasn't even waiting up for her.

"T-That's n-not fair N-Naruto-kun! You a-are much f-faster then me!" She called out as she tried desperately to catch up to Naruto. Sometimes he would carry her on his back or wrapped up in his tails when Naruto wanted to travel fast, but it seemed he either forgot or was just wanting to play. _'Knowing Naruto-kun he just wants to play. Besides when he carries me that weird warm feeling always bothers me.'_

Naruto just laughed as he continued to run towards the hospital while yelling out that it was only because he was a hanyou that he was faster, and that Hinata would have been much faster then him if he weren't. After learning the truth about his fox features, it had barely been a few days before he had started showing pride in what he was. It had shocked Hitomi when he first referred to himself as a hanyou and was about to berate him for insulting himself again. But when she had seen the look of pride in his eyes, the look he only use to only get when he spoke of his bloodline, she had accepted it and believed he had transferred the feelings he had for his bloodline to that of his true heritage.

Arriving at the hospital in under a minute Naruto didn't even wait for Hinata before he sped towards the ward where he knew Hitomi was being looked after in. When he arrived he burst through the doors and was hoping to see Hinata's new sister but instead he saw a fairly red faced Hitomi who was breathing and sweating quite heavily on a hospital bed. All the while four doctors were busying setting up all sorts of weird equipment and preparing a few different odd smelling pastes. "Hitomi-san! Where's the baby? Are you ok, you look like your hurting?" Naruto asked with concern as he attempted to jump up onto the bed, only to be caught mid-air by Hiashi.

"Naruto-kun. You will have to wait outside. Look after Hinata-chan for me, and don't worry I'll be fine. Delivering a baby is always a painful thing but I will be fine." Hitomi explained in the calmest voice she could between her laboured breaths. The labour was going to be hard enough as it was, so she certainly didn't need Naruto to get all stressed over her.

"She's right Naruto-kun, you will need to wait outside. Either me or one of the doctors will come get you and Hinata-chan when the baby is delivered." Hiashi said to reinforce his wife's words as he could see that Naruto was about to argue. So placing the little hanyou outside the ward, Hiashi closed and locked the doors before returning to his wife and holding her hand firmly. He knew it was probably a stupid thing to do considering the damage his wife had inflicted on his hand during Hinata's birth, but it was the only thing he could think of to comfort her. "You will be fine my dearest, it will only be a little while longer then we will be able to hold our second daughter in our arms."

Hitomi smiled as sweetly as she could manage at her husbands words, while at the same time managing to give her face a look that basically told him that it was time to shut up. She winced slightly when one of her contractions turned quite painful. "Yes… It's time. Urgh I have no idea why I let you do this to me!"

Outside the hospital ward

Naruto was nervously pacing outside the door, wincing every so often at the cries of pain that could frequently be heard from within the room. Most of the time it sounded like Hitomi and that worried Naruto, but what really concerned him and Hinata was when they here Hiashi scream out in pain. As far as they both knew it giving birth only hurt the mother so that had no idea why Hiashi was in pain.

"Hey Hinata-chan, how does the baby actually come out of the mother?" Naruto puzzled to his best friend while bounding over to where she sat.

Hinata looked up from her hands and blushed slightly at being put on the spot. She honestly didn't know but by the sound of it it was quite painful. More so then her mother had told her. "I-I don't k-know Naruto-kun… maybe um… t-they have to c-cut the m-mother's s-stomach to get the b-baby o-out?" To Hinata it was just a possible idea, but Naruto took it literally and paled significantly at the thought of his motherly figure being sliced up by evil doctors. Seeing the look on his face and noticing the odd twitches his ears were making, Hinata guessed Naruto's thoughts and thought desperately on something to distract him.

"Um… I-I'm sure t-there i-is no need t-to w-worry Naruto-kun… t-the doctors a-are sure t-to know on w-what to do." Seeing that he was still jittery she thought of a different approach. "How a-about we play a g-game until father c-comes and g-gets u-us?" Naruto did a complete 180 and bounced around excitably asking what the game was. "W-Well its c-called Byakugan S-Spy. It i-is like a g-game used t-to help t-train w-with the B-Byakugan. I u-use my Byakugan t-to look f-for s-something and I-I have to d-describe it to you. Y-You then h-have to g-guess what i-it is… but… y-you don't h-have t-to p-play if you d-don't won't to…" Hinata always liked to play games, but most people around her age never played with her, thinking she was weird and too shy. That was one of the reason's she really cherished having Naruto as a best friend, because he always wanted to play her games and never called them silly or her for that matter.

Naruto showed his agreement by bouncing up and down while calling for Hinata to start already. Hinata just giggled at her friends actions before starting the small sequence of hand signs need to activate her Byakugan. She was just as nervous and excited as Naruto so she hoped that this little game would help distract them both.

A few hours later Hiashi and a few doctors emerged from the delivery ward, Hitomi had successfully delivered a healthy baby girl and now that she a the baby were both stabilised, Hitomi had requested that Hiashi call in the children. When Hiashi left the ward he, even with his stonic façade he used when around other members of the clan, couldn't resist the smile that formed on his slightly tired face at the cute scene that met his eyes.

Naruto and Hinata were both sitting on the waiting bench asleep. Hinata's head was resting on Naruto's shoulder while his head rested on hers. They were both leaning into each other and for added warmth one of Naruto's tails had wrapped around them both while Hinata cuddle the other like a teddy bear. Following his wife's instructions that she had given to him a while back, Hiashi pulled out a small camera from a hidden pocket in his sleeve and took a quick camera shot. This noise was all that was needed to wake Naruto up, as his ears twitched slightly at the sound before he leapt of the seat suddenly, causing little Hinata to almost fall of completely.

Seeing Hiashi standing in front of them with an amused smirk on his face both children jumped up excitedly while asking as many questions about the baby as they could within a single breath, notably only Naruto's voice was heard as he easily out volumed his shy friend. Chuckling lightly Hiashi just gently grabbed each child by the hand and led them into the ward.

When they entered they both noted that all the doctors had left and the only people in the room were themselves, Hiashi, Hizashi, Hisano and of course Hitomi and the Hinata's newborn sister. Giving everyone in the room a big smile for a hi, Naruto grabbed onto Hinata's hand and sped across the room and leapt up onto Hitomi's bed, dragging a freaking out Hinata up with him.

"Hehehe… I knew you wouldn't wait for someone to help you up Naruto-kun…" Hitomi stated in a very tired and worn out voice, which still seemed to have some sort of reprimanding tone. Smiling at both the children Hitomi slowly sat up in the hospital bed, and gently lowered a small cloth bundle she was holding so she allow them to have a better look. "Come on you two, I know you have both been dying to meet the newest member of our family. Say hello to Hanabi Hyuga."

Hinata and Naruto both slowly moved closer to Hitomi, taking care to not step on her, and slowly peered into the opening of the blanket. Both children smiled brightly when they saw the small face the sleepily looked up at them. She was quite tiny, smaller then Naruto had expected but to be fair he had never been allowed this close to a new baby. She had the same small nose as her parents and had big puffy checks, her skin was still a little red and her eyes were the same plain white that showed her heritage as a Hyuga. The only feature about the cute little pudgy baby girl that Naruto found alarming was her brown hair colour. Hinata had noticed the same thing but was far too excited at seeing her little sister to ask.

"She's so cute! But, but why does she have brown hair? Why doesn't she have the same colour as Hinata-chan and you Hitomi-san?" Naruto asked while pointing to the little baby's hair with one of his tails.

"That's probably because she takes after her father more then me. Just because I'm the mother doesn't mean that all my daughters will look exactly like me, Hinata-chan was just lucky that she got my hair colour." Hitomi looked over towards Hinata and saw that she was thinking about asking something, but was to shy to ask. Hitomi luckily knew her daughter quite well and could guess what she wanted.

"Would you like to hold your little sister Hinata-chan?" Seeing her other daughters eyes light up with joy and excitement told her she was right on the money. So gently leaning forward she past little Hanabi to her older sister.

At first Hinata felt a little odd and nervous about holding her newborn sister, almost afraid that she would start crying or that she might drop her. But when she gazed into her little sister's eyes, who in turn looked back up at her if somewhat tiredly, all of her worries were quickly dismissed and she felt an odd feeling well up inside her. Almost like a need to do something for the newest Hyuga, almost like the desire to say something kind and caring to her new sister. "H-Hello Hanabi-imouto, I-I'm y-your big sister Hinata." A big grin spread across her face as Hanabi made a strange gurgle sound, which sounded strangely similar to a small laugh. Hinata didn't know how she knew, but she could already tell that she was going to really get alone well with her new sister.

"Looks like she already likes her big sister Hinata-chan! She just laughed!" Naruto proclaimed loudly while slightly bouncing up and down. Hitomi glared at the little hanyou, indicating to him to quiet down something he picked up immediately. If the sheepish grin he gave her was an indication. Hitomi when to smile back and just remind him to keep calm and quiet around Hananbi when a small shock of pain from her stomach caused her to wince visibly.

Hiashi noticing his wife flinch and being the kind husband he is, was quick to inquire into her health. "Are you already my dearest?" He asked sweetly while caressing her cheeks.

"I'm fine Hiashi-kun… I'm probably just a little tired. I think I just need to rest for a bit." Even as she said those words her eyes started to droop, clearly showing how warn out she was. Still caressing his wife gently, he asked Hizashi and Hisano to look after Naruto and Hinata while his wife slept. Both of them happily agreed and soon took the children outside, after Hinata had gently given her sister to her father of course. Before he left thought Hizashi just had to give one quick jab to his brother.

"You know brother, I must congratulate you on Hanabi's birth. But I don't think I envy you in any way." Hiashi just raised his eyebrow as he waiting for his brother to elaborate. "Hehe, think about it Hiashi. You have two daughter's only five years apart, not only will that fight like cats and dogs when they are teenagers but you will also have to beat off all of those boys that will flock to both of them." Hizashi just burst out into laughter at the hint of horror that crossed Hiashi's face before racing out the doors so his brother wouldn't throw something at him. But not before he heard his brother mutter something that would almost be prophetic.

"You say that now Hizashi, but I can guaranty that what you said right now while haunt you in the future." Hiashi then just turned to his wife and smiled, before he began to gently rock his new daughter back and forth.

Three weeks had past and the Hyuga compound had become grey in all meanings of the word. The white marble walls and flooring all seemed to have changed to a dull grey colour, the attitude and personality of each member of the Hyuga clan had also turned grey, and a deep grey cloud of sorrow seemed to permanently hang above the clan homes. Why? Because Hitomi Hyuga had not seemed to recover from the strains of childbirth and still remained in hospital. At first it just seemed like she was exhausted, but when she started to sleep for days at a time, that's when the alarms bells were sounded. Every available doctor in the entire of Konoha had been summoned to find out what was ailing the matriarch of the Hyuga clan, but so far no one had managed to find out what was wrong.

Even the great Byakugan and Sharingan both proved useless in the investigation further worrying everyone within the Hyuga clan and without. Never had such an ailment been recorded in all the history of Konoha, and a few particularly despicable villages were starting rumours saying that Naruto the Demon had cursed Hitomi to death. Something that infuriated a fair few people at its sheer lunacy. Basically Hitomi's body was just degenerating for no apparent reason, no poison, no illness and no problems with her chakra network were detected. On the outside her features had not changed, so to a normal person she would look fine. It was her insides that were the problem, they were just slowly shutting down and dying.

By the end of the second week after Hanabi's birth Hitomi had to hire a Nurse Mother to breastfeed Hanabi as she herself could no longer. She had no clue what was happening to her, and as the days went by and she got weaker and weaker, her fear that she was dying grew. There were too many people that needed her and she would be damned if she gave up to the strange ailment without one hell of a fight. However, by the end of the third week, the immense pain that constantly surged though her body was beginning to overwhelm her usual determination and stubbornness. And so worried that she might be on her last few days she called for all those closest to her and nearest in family blood to gather at her bedside table, for perhaps her last few hours.

Everyone that she had asked and even the Hokage had come to spend as much time as possible with Hitomi as they could for her final moments. The latest reports had shown then the degeneration had severely damaged her body and that death was practically certain unless a cure was found within the next few days. Hitomi held Hanabi within her frailed arms while in the room Naruto and Hinata sat on either side of her bed, and Neji and the adults all crowded around her as close as possible, all praying for her recovery and saying the nicest things they could think of to the ill matriarch. They had all tried what they could to make her time as comfortable and happy as possible, but during such a sad time, those moments were space.

Naruto was probably the best at getting Hitomi to smile and laugh, even if it pain her to do so everyone could tell that she enjoyed hearing Naruto's latest pranks and jokes. And that she greatly appreciated his methods of trying to cheer her up, even if he was crying half the time he was doing so.

Hitomi hated seeing everyone so sad, especially Hinata and Naruto as they both seemed to be nothing but cry when they were around her. She wished that she was strong enough to overcome whatever was tearing apart her body and stay with those that she loved most, but it seemed that was just not to be as even her willpower was only able to keep her going for so long. She knew she was dying and she knew it was soon, and she still couldn't believe it. It was just too unfair. She winced suddenly when another wave of pain hit her, but was glad that it was only a short burst instead of the long stabs that had been happening more frequently.

"Are you alright my love?" Hitomi turned to look in the direction of her husband as he spoke to her and gave him a loving smile at his concern. He had always loved her and always deeply cared for her, even if sometimes he had difficulty showing it she knew she was his everything, and she hated it that she would be leaving him alone. But at least she could leave apart of herself behind in the form of her daughters.

"I am alright Hiashi-kun… It… It was just another wave of pain. I'm probably just almost due to take my medicine." She said between deeply laboured and painful breaths as she reached out and lovingly held his hand. She glanced around at all the sad faces and decided that she had enough, she didn't want her last hours filled with sadness. "Alright everyone… I'm tired of all the sad faces. I want to speak to you all individually. I… I have a few things to ask and say to each of you. So if you all just wait outside and I… I will get you to come in one by one. H-Hiashi-kun… you stay… I want to speak to you first." Everyone gave her a polite bow acknowledging her wishes before they all slowly left the room and gathered in the waiting area. Naruto and Hinata were the last ones to leave as they each took the time to give Hitomi a loving hug.

Once everyone had left and the doors closed behind them, Hiashi turned to his wife as tears once again fell from his eyes. "My wife… My love. Please, ask anything of me. Anything you want and it will be yours. I swear it." Hitomi just smiled and giggled slightly at him as she reached up behind her husband's head and pulled him down onto her lips. She wanted him to know just how much he meant to her, and their was no other way that she could imagine that would quite explain her feelings. The kiss was surprisingly warm considering Hitomi's cold body, but that was not the only thing that was surprising about it. Hiashi could feel her feelings, her thoughts, her emotions and her love surge through her lips into his. All her inner most and precious memories flooded his mind, all the happy times they had spent together, their first moments as a couple, their first date, their first kiss, their wedding day and night. Everything that was most precious to his wife he could feel within her kiss to him. She was showing him her pure love to him, and it was breaking his heart.

When they broke apart he could feel his tears beginning to fall from his eyes as he desperately tried to form the words to explain how much she really meant to him, but the pain he felt at the knowledge that he was losing his most precious person in the world and the look of fear of death in his wife's eyes continued to cloud his mind.

"You mean everything to me Hiashi-kun… and I know from the bottom of my heart that that has always been the same for you too. You don't need to say anything, as I know that you have always loved me with all your heart." Hiashi couldn't control himself any longer and just let his tears flow as he buried his head into his wife's shoulder and held her as close to him as he could. It wasn't fair, Hitomi was the sweetest and kindest person he had ever known, and for no reason whatsoever she was being taken from him, her life rudely ripped from her far before her time. It just wasn't fair, and he hated it. "But I do have two requests of you my husband."

"Anything my love… anything for you. Anything you want, just ask." He begged as he continued to cry into her shoulder.

"I… I want us to repeat out wedding vows… I know it sounds kind of silly… I… I just want to." Hiashi lifted his head and he stared into the loving eyes of his wife. Her request was quite unheard of, but far from something he would not do for her. If it was something she wanted then he would me more then happy to oblige her.

"It shall be as you ask my love. Would you like to start?" He waited patiently for his wife to shift herself and the sleeping baby she held in her arms so that she could sit up. It was a difficult and painful process and he assisted her where possible.

"Hiashi-kun. You are my earth, my sun, my life. And I stand here this day to proclaim before the entire clan my eternal love for you. And that for better or for worse, I shall stand by your side as your wife to uplift you when you are down, to knock you down when you are too high and to love you always. You were my love since I laid eyes on you, and you have remained so ever since and will continue to be even after death. To you Hiash-kun, I pledge my love, always." Hiashi smiled brightly as his wife recounted her vows perfectly, in her current state that must have been painful. But he sort of knew she would force herself to say it all correctly, she was never one to let a little pain stop her.

"Hitomi-chan. You are my sky, my moon, my stars. And I stand here this day to proclaim before the entire clan my eternal devotion to you. And that for better or for worse, I shall remain your forever faithful husband to comfort you in your times of need, to serve you with all of my being and to love you always. You have become the most precious thing in my life and without you, I would die as you are my will to live. To you Hitomi-chan, I pledge my love, always." Hitomi smiled brightly and tears ran from her eyes the whole time she listen to her husband repeat his vows to her. The Hyuga clan had a running tradition to use the same vows for every Hyuga wedding, but for theirs Hiashi had pulled a few strings and they were allowed to say the ones they wrote with each other's help.

Hiashi leaned down and sealed his second vows with a passionate kiss, emulating his wife and allowing all his emotion and love to flow through his lips into hers. They broke apart quickly when they heard Hanabi awake and then proceed to cry loudly. Not enough to ruin the moment but enough to hurry along their perhaps last moments together.

"She looks hungry, I shall take her to the nurse mother. I shall be back soon." He gently lifted his crying daughter into his arms and gave his wife another kiss before he got up to leave. Before he left however Hitomi handed him a small piece of paper. Sensing his confusing she quickly explained before he could open the note.

"It contains my… second request. Read it in your own time tomorrow, if I'm… if I'm still fine tomorrow… you can discuss it with me. Could you send in… Hisano next please love?" Hiashi nodded and gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek before leaving in tears to get Hanabi feed.

And that's how it progress for the next few hours, one person would enter and then leave in tears twenty to thirty minutes later. Late in the afternoon, the only two people left were Hinata and Naruto. Seemingly left to last for a specific reason as Hitomi chose the order. The last person to leave was Neji, and even he was brought to tears. Obviously from something really sentimental that his aunt had said to him as it was only his mother and aunty that ever seemed to get emotional responses out of him.

"Hinata-sama. It is your turn." Neji said politely before walking down the hospital hallway to where his mother was waiting for him. Hinata nervously jumped off the waiting seat and walked into her mother's ward.

Without Naruto to jump her onto the bed she had to use the steps that were placed next to her mother's bed to climb up. It was difficult considering she was still a little short, but her mother helped her by lifting her slightly. When she was on the bed, it didn't even take her a second before she had lunged for her mother, crying deeply into her chest.

"I-I-It's n-not f-fair m-mummy… w-why… w-why do y-you have to l-leave?... W-What di-did you e-ever d-do? Y-You… you a-are the n-nicest mum in t-the w-world. You d-don't d-deserve to die…" Hinata cried out between hiccups and her tears socked her mother's bed sheets and cloths.

Hitomi just held her daughter close to her as she cried. She knew that Hinata who would be one of those to take her death the worst, the poor child was shy and nervous enough as it was and losing her mother would only help to lower her already dismal self-confidence. She knew that a child to lose their mother at the age of five would be probably the hardest thing to ever happen in their lives, and she hated herself for doing this to not one, but both of her daughters.

"Shhhh... I know hunny. I know it's not fair… but there's nothing that the doctors can do. They have… tried e-everything. But always… remember that you, your sister, Naruto-kun and your father mean… mean the world to me, I love you all more then anything else and that even once I'm gone… I won't be gone completely because I… I will always remain in your heart." Hitomi knew that it was kind of harsh to say that she will be gone, but it was the truth and there wasn't many ways you could put it.

Both mother and daughter stayed like that for a good twenty minutes, just holding each other close as they both supported each other as they cried. It wasn't until Hinata's tears had turned into little hiccups that Hitomi thought it appropriate to talk again. "Now Hinata-chan, there is something I would like you… to do for me." She said while reaching into a small drew next to her, before taking out a small key and a piece of paper. "This key is to my garden, I'm sure you remember it… as I have taken you there a few times. It was my place of solitude when… when I wanted to get away from the prying eyes of the other Hyuga's. It was mine… and is now yours." She said as she handed Hinata the key and piece of paper. "Make sure you look after it, that place… was my pride and joy. Inside the paper… you will find basic instructions on how to keep everything alive. The rest is… is up to you."

Hinata held the key close to her chest like it was the most precious things she was ever given, which in a way it was. She vowed then and there that she would keep her mother's garden growing for generations to come, at least then she would always have a piece of her mother with her. However, that little piece of determination did nothing to halt the tears that fell from her eyes.

"Now you have to promise to be a big girl now… as your going to have to be the one to help your little sister to grow up properly and to be the one to tell… Naruto off when he's being naughty." Hitomi smiled hearing her daughter laugh a little at that. Even if it was half choked by tears. "I wish… I could be there for when you graduate, and when you go on your first… date, and when you get married… and to play… with my grandchildren. But it seems like I won't get… the chance, so I want you… to… to grow up big and strong ok. Be the best ninja… that you can be and make… make me proud of you. And make sure… whoever you choose to love… is a g-good and respectable person." Hitomi knew it was a little odd to say such a thing to a five year old. But she had to give her advice for the future somehow.

"I-I will m-mother. And I will tell Naruto-kun off when he's bad." Hinata promised while still clutching the key tightly. Hitomi smiled as she once again pulled her daughter in for a hug, both of them breaking out into tears again.

"I love you so much my precious daughter… and I'm so sorry I have to leave you… please forgive me…" It wasn't until Hitomi's medicine alarm rang that they realised on how long they had spent together. There weren't many words between them, but they didn't need them. All they needed was to spend their last moments as mother and daughter as close as possible.

Shaking her daughter gently Hitomi quickly explained that her medicine was due that she would need to speak to Naruto quickly as the medicine always put her to sleep. Hinata nodded silently before giving her mother another quick hug and hurrying out to fetch Naruto, all the while tears streaming from her little face.

Instead of barging through the door at a hundred miles an hour like he usually does, Naruto just slowly pushed the doors aside, gently balancing a small package as he slowly made his way across the room. Or more dragged himself as his usual high spirit was drained and his tails dragged along the ground, trying with all his might to prevent the tears that were gathering in his eyes from falling.

Hitomi watched as the little hanyou silently made his way to her bedside, she smiled down at him to which he returned with his own smile and presented the package to her. "Are you hungry kaasan?" Hitomi just smiled brighter before nodding her head and beckoning him onto her bed. Naruto had recently starting referring to her as kaasan whenever they were alone together and Hitomi couldn't be happier. At first she was quiet worried that he considered her his mother as she thought it would be very disrespectful to her deceased friend that her son sees someone else as his mother. But after Naruto's explanation that he just has two mothers she became more settled about the matter.

Naruto bounced up as gently as he could and sat on Hitomi's lap, wrapping both his tails around her waist while he opened the small package of mixed tempura, Hitomi's personal favourite food, and presented it too her with some chopsticks. Hitomi knew that Naruto was just trying to find another way to make her happy, so she graciously took the offered food and despite the difficulty she had at using the eating utensils began eating his gift. The two sat in complete silence as Hitomi slowly ate the delicious meal, while every-so-often feeding some to the silently crying hanyou in her lap. When she had finished she placed the empty box on her bedside table and beckoned Naruto closer for a hug.

That was it for Naruto, every single tear he had tried to hold in burst free as he lunged forward into the offered hug. Naruto had been abused both physically and mentally practically since his birth, and yet nothing he had felt before hurt like he did at the present time. Hitomi's comforting embrace did little to eliminate the soul-crushing pain that tore through his little heart as one of his worst nightmares were turning true. Hitomi, his mother, was dying, and there was nothing he could do to save her. He despised it, hated the fact that he could nothing but stand by as his mother slowly withered away. _'It's not fair! Why does Hitomi-kaasan have to die? What did she ever do wrong! IT'S JUST NOT FAIR! I can't do anything… I can't save her, WHY CAN'T I SAVE HER?'_

Naruto's tears of pain and hurt began to resoak Hitomi's hospital gown as he cried into his mother's chest. Hitomi meant everything to him, and he was losing her and it hurt him more then anything he could ever imagine.

Holding the crying little hanyou close to her, Hitomi's own tears fell as she watched another one of her children's heart break because of her. She wished she could recover from whatever ailed her, more then anything just so she could take the pain that she was causing them away from Hinata and Naruto. She was leaving her children behind, one of them wouldn't ever know what it was like to have her mother while the other two would be crushed and scarred for years to come.

"Naruto-kun…" Hitomi called gently while lifting his head so she could look into his eyes. "I… I want you to know that I was proud… and happy to have been your mother even if it was only for a short while. And… and I will miss you immensely when I'm gone." Naruto's tears just increased causing his vision to cloud slightly, he wanted to say something, anything to let her know how much she meant to him but he allowed his mother to continue her goodbye.

"I know you will protect my family while I'm gone… It's a natural instinct of any Kitsune… to give guardianship over those who care for it so I … I know you will keep them all safe. But I also… I also don't want you to feel like you owe us that protection. You were never indebted to us when… when we saved you and accepted you as… as you should have received that from everyone in the village like the fourth hokage decreed. But… But I do have one request." Naruto turned into Hitomi's hand as she gently and affectionately rubbed his ears, causing them to twitch slightly from the attention.

"What… What do you ask of me kaasan?" Naruto asked in a croaked voice as he tried desperately to force his tears back again. Only to fail when they cleared from his vision allowing him to see his mother's smiling face again.

"I want you to be… careful. Your Yokai nature is powerful and can easily corrupt even the strongest of minds. I don't want to ever see you lose yourself to your own rage and dark powers… prove to the world that not all Yokai's are evil… I know you can do it as I have faith in you my son… but… but please promise that you won't fall to your darkness… learn your powers… but learn them safely. It would break my heart to see you become what the villagers despise so much." Naruto had never seen his mother's eyes so serious before, and could only nod as he rubbed the tears from his eyes not trusting his voice to be able to form proper words.

"Good… I know you won't let me down…" Hitomi coughed violently into her hand a few times, causing Naruto to edge forward his eyes practically begging to know she was alright. When the coughing had subsided Hitomi reached behind her pillow and withdrew are rather large book. It's cover was dark red and had an intricate vine pattern embossed on it. In the centre of the front cover was a great white Nine Tailed Fox, roaring towards the heavens. Before Naruto could enquire on what the book was or was about, Hitomi handed it to him and explained its purpose to him, having already pre-empted his question.

"I had a few of the branch family search for this book for me… It took them a fair few months to track down, but I believe it will be worth it. It contains detailed information and analysis on everything Kitsune… I originally wanted to obtain the book to read and understand Kitsunes more myself… But I believe it will be of far more use to you as it explains a lot of the powers and abilities that Kitsune's posses. It is… a bit more advanced then you might be able to comprehend… but… but I'm sure in time you will be able to understand… It is my gift to you Naruto-kun… I want my son to grow up to be as strong as possible, and this is my way of helping you… even after I'm gone."

Naruto held the enigmatic book in his clawed hands tightly, almost like he was afraid that if his grip loosened even the slightest then it would be stolen away from him. Naruto just continued to stare at the book in his grasp, speechless as tears still fell from his eyes only to be caught by his own tails in fear that the droplets would damage his new treasure. Pulling the book close to his chest Naruto once again jumped forward to hug his mother, this time giving her cheek an affectionate lick. It wasn't even three seconds before their little bonding was interrupted by a tall male Hyuga doctor walking into the room carrying a few needles and pills.

Bowing almost to the floor in respect the Hyuga apologised perfusely for the interruption before he explained the reason for his presense. "I am deeply sorry for the interruption Hitomi-sama, but it is time to take your medicine again." When the doctor raised his head he jumped a little from fright at seeing Naruto, something that both Hitomi and Naruto thought was odd.

Not knowing why the doctor seemed to be afraid of Naruto, Hitomi thought it best to send the little hanyou out of the room while she took the medicine and slept, promising to read a little of the book she gave him to himself and Hinata tomorrow. The doctor nodded thankfully as Naruto hoped down and begun walking out of the ward, before he began to ready one of the needles he held in his possession. When he did so a small amount of the medicinal dosage spurt out of the needle's tip. The moment that happened Naruto froze, to anyone else the medicine would be odourless, but to him the scent was clear and it was a scent he knew too well.

Naruto recognised the scent and he felt the rage and fire he had felt once before build within him. The painful power filled with bloodlust and anger was surfacing in his body again, threatening to overtake his mind. Knowing full well what the power was, and what the doctor held within his hand, Naruto once again mentally grabbed hold of the fire within him and virtually ripped it from the seal within him. The shear rage and bloodlust of the powerful Yokai blasted from his body as the power caused a small spiral of red chakra flames to surge around him blasting the doors and windows of Hitomi's ward right off their hinges.

Naruto felt the heat from his Yokai chakra pulsate within his body and he screamed in pain as his blood seemed to turn fire, and he could fell the same changes that happened occurred last time he used his demonic chakra. His mind was soon filled with all sort of overpowering emotions, emotions to kill and destroy. Naruto roared loudly as he spun around slashing randomly behind him in a desperate attempt to help rid his mind of the bloodlust so he could focus properly. As he did his now demonic red eyes caught sight of a now cowering doctor and Naruto instantly found an outlet for his demonic rage. Growling savagely the spiralling flames ceased suddenly, revealing Naruto crouched down on all fours as his tails lashed around savagely, his demonic features further frightening the practically petrified doctor.

"**You! You traitor! I can smell the metal! You tried to kill Hitomi-kaasan! It's your fault she's like this! I'LL RIP YOU TO SHREDS!" **Not even giving to target a chance to reply, Naruto clenched his clawed hands tightly practically crushing the ground before him before lunging at the doctor. Growling viciously Naruto appeared directly in front of the doctor, slashing savagely as his hands.

The doctor was so surprised at the sudden attack he could do little to shield himself as Naruto clawed hands ripped deeply into his chest, the pain was so sudden and intense that he could nothing but drop his equipment and clutch his bleeding chest. Naruto's Yokai induced rage clouded his mind as the demonic chakra urged him to kill the man before him, but his urges were quickly diverted when Naruto saw the needle drop from the doctor's hands. Intent on sending the vile liquid to oblivion Naruto lashed out with a tail, which crashed into the needle and smashing in on the floor. Still not convinced on its destruction Naruto pounced on its spilt contents and began pounding it all into the ground with fist after fist. All the while ignorant of Hitomi's pleas for him to calm down, and the approaching Hyugas.

Hiashi couldn't describe the thoughts that were racing through his mind as he sped as fast as his legs would carry him to his wife's hospital ward. When he had felt Naruto's Yokai chakra surge from the hospital his mind virtually stopped as all sorts of images and thoughts flooded his mind on what would cause Naruto to once again use his demonic chakra and fear gripped his heart. As he dodged the many panicking Hyuga's only one thought could be properly formed in his mind that he could comprehend, and that was to get to his wife and Naruto before any of them were hurt.

Naruto felt an odd feeling well up from the power that was coursing his body as he continued to pound the liquid through the floor. One that he recognised well and caused a realisation to form within his clouded and rage filled mind. _'This feeling! I know it! It's the same one I got when I used my Fox Fire! After all this time! It was because I wasn't using my Yokai Chakra!' _Willing his Yokai to his left and right hands, Naruto performed the three hand signs his instincts had taught him and watched in a fascination as majestic blue flames ignited in his hands. Before he could even think of what to do he instinctly slammed both hands into the remains of the liquid, virtually incinerating it and the floor beneath him. So focused on destroying the liquid Naruto didn't detect the doctor approach him from behind until he felt a sharp pain surge through his shoulder.

The doctor noticed Naruto's attention was taken by the needle he had dropped, and when the raging hanyou continue to pound it into the ground the doctor took the chance to attack, hoping that if he struck the hanyou right. He could end his life right then and there. So withdrawing a small scalpel from his coat the doctor lunged at the unsuspecting hanyou. However, dodging Naruto's flailing tails proved difficult and instead of the scalpel finding its mark at the back of Naruto's neck, it instead sunk down deep into the young boy's right shoulder. The doctor barely had to remove his hand from the scalpel before Naruto's tails wrapped around his legs, the small barb like hairs locking him in place.

Genuine fear gripped the doctor's heart as Naruto half turned his head towards his attacker, his demonic red eyes practically piercing the man's soul. And before the doctor could even imagine what was going to happen to him, Naruto spun sharply, dragging his tails and the doctor forward before punching him hard in the gut. Naruto grinned maniacally and laughed in morbid joy as the doctor slammed hard into the hospital wall. The rage that still coursed through his body urged him to not let up and within an instant Naruto had charged the falling doctor, catching him by the neck as he fell and slamming him hard into the ground.

The doctor chocked and desperately tried to breath, but the pressure Naruto forced down upon his throat ensured that he couldn't. The doctor tried to flail his limbs around in a desperate attempt to kick or punch the raging hanyou off him. But in return Naruto just slashed each limb with his free hand severing the tendons and muscles that allowed the doctor to move them freely. The doctor could then do nothing but gaze up into the Naruto's demonic face as his life slowly began to ebb away as his blood stained the floor. His vision fading slowly the last thing before he slipped into unconsciousness was Naruto growling darkly before raising his hand near his face, intent on cutting his throat apart.

Naruto readied his strike, intent on ending the life of the man before him. The one he assumed was responsible for Hitomi's illness. He could faintly hear Hitomi's sobs and her crying out for him to stop, but the rage within him and the urges that were clouding his mind, caused him to ignore her pleas. He was doing this to save her anyway, so she would thank him when he was finished. Naruto's claws came down faster then lightning through the sky but mere moments before they sliced the doctor's head from his shoulders Naruto's hand was caught by another hand, before he was thrown away from the unconscious doctor.

Hiashi stood in a defensive stance with his Byakugan active above the broken doctor, and demanded of Naruto for an explanation. He had quickly glanced at his wife and it seemed that the demonic chakra in the air had caused her to fall unconscious. "What are you doing Naruto Uzumaki! You better have a good reason for attempting to murder a Hyuga of the Leaf Village!" Hiashi boomed at the raging hanyou, only to receive a vicious growl as an answer as Naruto thrashed around trying to get back on his feet.

Naruto spun in mid air and landed harshly in a four legged crouch, he could recognise that he was thrown away by Hiashi. For what reason he could not fathom as his mind was too focused on ripping the doctor to shreds. He did however comprehend Hiashi's demands even if they did seem fragmented. **"He has been poisoning Hitomi-kaasan! I could smell the bad metal within the needle he was going to give to her! THE BASTARD TRAITOR WAS THE ONE WHO WAS KILLING HITOMI!" **Naruto's rage shook the very foundation of the hospital, and Hiashi was concerned on whether or not Naruto was in full control of himself. He seemed to be able to respond to conversation but his rage was clearly clouding his judgement, if the random tail thrashes and air swipes Naruto sent his way was any indication. He just hoped that he could get a better understanding of what happened out of the boy.

"What? What do you mean 'bad metal'? What could you smell?" Hiashi's answer was Naruto attempting to charge at the doctor again, this time trying to slash through himself to get to the doctor. Hiashi just pushed his palms out quickly, slamming it as gently as he could into the hanyou's chest, using a small amount of chakra to propel him away.

Naruto didn't seem to take the hit lightly and his rage just increased, to the point where the demonic chakra in the air was even making it Hiashi to breath. **"Why do you protect him? He had chakra metal in that needle! The Old Man explained it to me before! When it was used on me! HE WAS TRYING TO KILL HITOMI!"** The moment Naruto had said chakra metal Hiashi froze in realisation. The degenerating health of his wife with no reason why, the failing organs, the rather high counts of iron in her blood, the unaffected Chakra in her body, it all made sense.

Chakra metal had the ability to absorb all chakra it touches, and because of its powerful ability it was highly sort after and mined until there was practically nothing left but perhaps dust. The reason Hitomi's organs were failing was because the metal was being absorbed by them and in turn the metal was absorbing the chakra around them. Such minor chakra absorption would be blind to even the Byakugan but it would be enough to affect the organs.

"Naruto I believe you but you need to calm down! If this doctor was poisoning Hitomi then we need him alive to find out why and if he was working for someone else." It was hard enough for Hiashi to remain calm with this new knowledge as even he wanted to kill the doctor he was defending, but he knew he needed to be calm for Naruto's sake unless he wanted the Hyuga Hospital completely demolished by the hanyou's rage.

Naruto was about to retort and charge the doctor again, but was distracted when he heard a small voice gasp. The voice was light but sharp in sound, and held a great deal of fear within it. Turning his head towards the voice, Naruto felt his heart sink when he saw the form of his best friend.

Hinata had come running towards her mother's room when she felt the evil and powerful chakra burst from it. At first it had scared the life out of her, but when she saw even her father racing towards her mother's room she steeled her resolve and followed him. The sight before her was like nothing she could have ever imagined even in her darkest of nightmares. Blood was spilt all along the floor and pooled around the fallen form of one the Hyuga doctors. The room had been smashed up pretty bad, especially parts of the furthest wall and one spot on the floor. But what really frightened her was her best friend; Naruto. He was different, his whisker marks were deeper his claws were slightly longer and his hands looked more savage, his tails were bristly and sharp looking while his hair was just a feral mess. But what truly scared her were his eyes, his blood red eyes filled with rage and anger. Just looking at them and she thought he was going to attack her.

"N-N-Naruto-kun… wh-wh-what's w-w-wrong w-with y-you… y-your… y-your sc-scaring m-me… d-don't h-hurt m-me…" Hinata knew that Naruto would never hurt her, but with the overpowering evil energy that was blasting from him and his monstrous looking features she wasn't sure what was happening. She just wanted to get away.

Hinata's fear and her movements that were indicating that she was about to run caused something within Naruto's mind to click. And a small bit of peace was granted to the raging fire within him. _'I'm scaring her… Hinata-chan. She wants to run… this power is scaring her. What if? What if she thinks I'm a monster now? Then she'll hate me like everyone else from the village!'_ The fright that was caused by his own destructive caused a small amount of clarity to enter Naruto mind, and with that clarity and his force of will Naruto forced the Yokai Chakra within his body to settle down.

As the Yokai levels within him returned to there normal levels, Naruto's more demonic features faded and his eyes returned to normal, if a bit droppy from the exhaustion that ensured. With the last bit of energy that remained in his body Naruto looked up at his fear-turned-concerned friend. "I… I found out what is wrong with kaasan… It was that man…" That was all he said before his body collapsed from the sudden exhaustion.

Three Days Later

The entire Hyuga clan stood gathered atop the Hokage Tower, all stood silently as they paid their respects as a whole clan to there past away matriarch. Hitomi Hyuga, wife of Hiashi Hyuga, loving mother of Hinata and Hanabi Hyuga and surrogate mother of Naruto Uzumaki had died. The amount of chakra metal that was present within her organs was too much to remove even by the most skilled of doctors; she had died peacefully in her sleep just yesterday after delivering one final goodbye to everyone.

The branch family stood gathered on one side of the tower, each of them their heads bowed in respect. They had all greatly admired and loved Hitomi, she was a fair and kind leader and never enforced the seal on them, one of the biggest contributors to their respect of her.

On the other side the main family stood with there head's held high, refusing to show weakness as was the tradition of the main branch. Although Hitomi's passing still affected them on the same personal level as of those from the branch family. Hitomi was their leader also, and yet she always acted like she their friend. She was kind and caring and never seemed to flaunt her political power over any of them. To both families, she would be missed greatly.

In the centre, directly in front of Hitomi's memorial and between the too families stood Hitomi's closest family. Hiashi remained strong in front of the clan, but inside he was an emotional wreck, barely able to stand except from will alone. In his private quarters he had cried him self to sleep the night of his wife's passing and had awoken with tears still falling from his face. Hizashi and Hisano both stood to Hiashi's left, holding hands for comfort as tears fell from their eyes. To Hiashi's right stood the nurse mother who was holding baby Hanabi who had not stopped crying since the second her mother she will never know past away. And next to her stood Hinata and Naruto.

Hinata couldn't care if the elders called her weak for her display of emotion, but right now she needed nothing else but to release her emotions onto her best friend's shoulder and hug his tails closely. She didn't really know what to think, her mother, one of the only people apart from her immediate family and Naruto that truly believed in her was gone. Taken away from her for no explainable reason. It crushed her spirit and soul, and she wondered if she would be ever able to live without her mother.

Naruto wasn't in much better shape then his friend. He had not been allowed by the elders to attend Hitomi's funeral but Hiashi had stepped in and force them otherwise, in a way he wished that Hiashi hadn't. His Yokai chakra continually blazing around his body, however instead of being caused by an imbalance in his emotions triggered by anger, this time it was triggered by his sadness and guilt. Naruto knew that it made those around him fearful and uncomfortable but he really didn't care.

The rage and bloodlust that was usually so abundant in the demonic chakra was all but none existent. Instead it was replaced with the cold and suffocating feeling of sadness and loneliness. All the feelings that Naruto had bottled up throughout his young life came rushing out of him and everyone within the vicinity of the chakra felt themselves beginning to be overcome by the pressuring chakra. Even those of the strongest wills began to tear up from the emotions that Naruto was extruding; it was almost like Naruto's crushed emotions were given a chakra form.

The funeral service was handled by the Hokage himself, and after his speech a few of Hitomi's closest friends and family approached the little alter and placed a single flower atop her coffin. Hiashi stood before his wife's coffin and could barely keep himself standing as tears finally broke free from his eyes, he really didn't care if he looked weak now. His wife deserved his tears.

Half way though the ceremony Naruto's chakra flared tremendously, causing those around him to jump back in both fear and caution. Hinata let got of her friend and tried to calm him down, but he either could hear her or didn't listen. His Yokai chakra regained its usual bloodlust and many around him almost hurled from the pressure change in the air and the sheer amount of killer intent that appeared out of nowhere. Having already had his Yokai chakra running though his body meant that his more demonic features were already visible, so the only change felt was in the chakra itself and Naruto's behaviour, which suddenly became more ferocious.

"**Why? Why did she have to die? WHAT DID SHE EVER DO?"** Before anyone could even attempt to answer him, Naruto sped of on all fours and leapt off the top of the Hokage Tower. Many called out to him in fear that he just committed suicide, but silenced their cries when they saw him crash into the side of the Hokage Mountain and then proceed to leapt up its side, using his tails and sharp claws as climbing tools. Many quite amazed at what the five year old was doing.

The ceremony proceeded from there normally, with only a few members glancing towards the Hokage Mountain whenever they heard a loud explosion or smoke rise from behind the mountains. Most assuming that Naruto was blowing off his steam as they could still feel his demonic chakra spiking. So sadden by the lose of their matriarch and distracted by Naruto's rage that no one noticed the evil smiles on the Hyuga elder's faces. Each one clearly pleased with how things had turned out. Hiroshino in particular.

'_Hehe… even though the little demon brat saved Hinata at least the second part of the plan went off without a hitch. Soon… soon things will be as they were meant to be from the start.' _With that last dark thought Hiroshino and the elders disappeared in a swirl of leaves, still completely unnoticed by their fellow Hyugas.

Behind Hokage Mountain

"**Why? It's just not fair!"** Naruto screamed in rage as he pelted another Fox Fire jutsu at another giant boulder, melting most of it from the sheer heat of the jutsu. Naruto paused for a second to observe the landscape around him with tear clouded eyes. He had completely levelled a good ten meters by ten meters of forest. Incinerating every tree and melting every boulder he came across, anything to satiate his rage.

"**She was killed! MURDERED BY HER OWN FAMILY! The bastard traitor was instructed to do so by someone else! SOMEONE ELSE OF THE HYUGA CLAN! And when I find out who I'LL RIP THEM TO SHREDS!" **Naruto raged again as tears flew from his eyes as he spun around creating another Fox Fire jutsu and firing it of at another poor tree, incinerating it with majestic blue flames.

Regardless of the rage and bloodlust that was surging through his body and mind, Naruto's thoughts stayed centred on one thing. His surrogate mother's murder, and her last words to him before she died. Falling on his knees as his sorrow at losing his mother and his own guilt because he believed he should have smelt the metal sooner, Naruto cried out in rage and sorrow as his mother's smiling face past through his mind.

'_Naruto-kun… grow strong… protect everyone you love… look after Hinata-chan and Hanabi-chan for me… and know… and know that I will love you always…'_

Naruto glanced down at his clawed hands, imagining the blood that once stained them from his first kill. The guilt he felt now seemed almost identical to that time. He knew that he didn't kill Hitomi, but to himself he felt like he failed her in not protecting her or being able to save her. She was one of the first people to ever show him kindness, and now she was gone forever.

Naruto screamed out again as he slammed the ground in frustration and rage, creating a fairly large hole from the force of the impact. Looking up from the ground his blood red eyes stared viciously in front of him, anger, hurt and guilt could be seen swirling within his red orbs as tears continued to stream from them. But if someone were to look closer at that exact moment his hand lifted from the small crater, they would have seen something else. Something stronger then his rage and bloodlust, something stronger then his bonds with the Hyuga clan, and something even stronger then his friendship with Hinata. They would have seen the sheer determination form within them as his dream in life shifted. **"I don't care if I become Hokage or not… I matters little to me now. What I want is what Hitomi-kaasan asked of me… I won't ever let anyone I care for get hurt again, I won't lose anyone I love ever again! I swear from this moment on I will protect everyone I care about! DO YOU HEAR ME KONOHA! NO MATTER THE COST, NO MATTER WHAT I LOSE, NO MATTER WHAT I HAVE TO DO I WON'T LOSE ANYONE EVER AGAIN!"**


	16. Chapter 15: Changes and Academy Start

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Right another chapter is now released.

Personally I didn't quite like this chapter as it just seemed to contain... well nothing. I only really liked the ending part.

**TO MY READER KNOWN AS ODDITY:** Wow, you really saw through that part didn't you? Yes he will try to achieve the hole refusal of allowing death to those around him thing you spoke of. It will a prominent plot element later on, more so in the novel adaptation though. Anyway, kudos to you for picking it up so easily. Just don't go spoiling the story for anyone with your observation skills eh? hehe.

For any of those interested or care I have run a quick run though fix up on a few of the older chapters. Nothing too major though.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliate products. I do however own all original plot elements in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 15: Changes and Academy Start

Six years later

An eleven year old Naruto lay asleep peacefully atop his bed, his now three tails gracefully wrapped around him as he lay curled up in a little ball. The morning sun filtered through his window gently touching his face, causing his ears to twitch in irritation as the warm light began to wake him. Growling in annoyance at being pulled from his wonderful dream, which consisted of him eating mountains and mountains of ramen with his best friend, Naruto turned his head around and used one of his tails to cover his eyes. Hoping to the gods that he could return to his blissful dream. However, his alarm clock seemed to have a different plan as it made it's presence known in the only way it could; ring loudly.

Naruto shot up at the sound and hastily covered his sensitive ears from the horrible sound. Intent on silencing the sound as quickly as possible, Naruto flicked out one of his tails and slammed it hard atop the horrible device. Yawning in a rather animalistic way, Naruto groggily bounced out of bed and made his way to the kitchen. He would have attempted to go back to sleep, but his alarm clock had been set for 5:30 so there was obviously something important he had to do today.

Still half asleep, the little hanyou dragged himself towards his morning goal, The Ramen Cupboard. It was called this for two reasons, one: it contained nothing but different types of instant ramen and two: because he had literally carved the name The Ramen Cupboard into it with his claws. He was about to reach into his favourite cupboard and revitalise himself when a few scents that weren't native to his house caught his attention. Spinning around into a defensive stance ready to defend himself in the need arose, Naruto carefully analysed the scents as he followed them through his house. _'Body sweat, obviously from a human… female… late teens… with just a hint of peaches and … and… saline, perhaps tears?' _

The tears bit was odd but the rest as well as a few scents that were quite familiar Naruto easily identified the intruder. More specifically: his sister was just sleeping in his spare room. Suddenly fully awake and energetic, Naruto completely forgot about his breakfast and bolted for his spare room. He was planning on barging in and tackling her while she was sleeping but the sound of crying caused him to hault his actions and rethink his entry. _'That's right, that stupid bastard of a boyfriend dumped her last night for no reason at all! I swear when I get my hands on him I'll scratch him up so good that his face will be so hideous that no one will ever want to date him.'_ It may have been slightly cruel and malicious of him, but he didn't care. The bastard had hurt his sister so it was natural that he had to pay.

Opening the door silently Naruto popped his head through to see if it was safe before slowly making his way to his sister's bedside. "Tohru-neechan? Are you ok?" He asked with genuine concern, he hated it when people were sad and his sister was definitely no exception. When she didn't answer him, he gently pulled himself up on top of the bed and snuck under the cover. When he found where his sister was he just snuggled into her shoulders and wrapped his tails around her comfortingly.

Tohru jumped at the sudden contact, she hadn't heard her little brother come in at all. Nor did she hear him ask her how she was. She quickly relaxed when she realised who it was and turned into the little hanyou and snuggled him back and just laid there for a few minutes crying her heart out into the shoulder of her little brother. She knew it was kind of unfair to constantly use him as her emotional outlet but she also knew that he didn't mind because she always felt better afterwards.

"What did I do wrong Itouto?... I… I thought I was a wonderful girlfriend to him, and he was always so kind and sincere… I-I just don't understand. He said just two days ago that I was the best thing that ever happened to him and that he loved me with all his heart… and then last night… last night says that he doesn't think it will work out and just leaves me in the middle of our date… why Itouto? Am I just not pretty enough or something?" Tohru knew herself that it was a silly thing to ask, especially of her eleven year old brother, but she was just too upset and confused to really care.

Naruto growled loudly when his sister finished, he had forgotten that it was during their date, their four year anniversary date too. Suddenly his cruel punishment he was going to give the bastard didn't seem so cruel. But he also growled at his sister, he knew she was strong and very beautiful and it hurt him deeply that she could say such things about herself. "You are very beautiful Neechan! He's just a bastard! He doesn't realise on what a wonderful person you are and when he does he's gonna come crawling back. And when he does, I'm gonna beat him up for leaving you in the first place!" Tohru could do little to hold back the laughter at her little brother's proclamation. She wasn't sure if it was what he said or his cute little angry face that he was pulling that made her laugh, but she didn't care as it was a nice reprieve from the sadness she felt.

Sitting up slowly, Tohru lifted the covers off herself and picked up her little brother as she stood up to get ready for the day. She was still beyond crushed at what her love had done to her, but at least her tears had slowed, thanks to her little brother's silliness.

"Come on Naruto-kun, you go get dressed out of your sleeping cloths and I'll make breakfast for us." Tohru laughed again when Naruto leapt out of her arms and sped all the way back to his room while making his signature yip noise to indicate his happiness. For some reason the odd little hanyou always thought that his ramen tasted better when it was made by someone else. She was still feeling devastated but she knew that Naruto would change that soon enough, he always did. So with a small smile she went to her cupboard to change for the day, as she did she took the time to check herself in the mirror.

She didn't think that she changed at all over the last six years, and if she did most of it wasn't noticeable. The only thing that she did notice was that her facial features were more mature in look and more defined and that her cheeks seemed to have risen slightly. One change that she personally had noticed was that her hips were more womanly and had more of a curve then they use to. Something that she didn't mind as it gave her an almost perfect hourglass figure thanks to her generous bust size. _'Screw him, Naruto-kun is right, I am very pretty if I don't say so myself.'_ She giggled at her own thoughts before resuming looking through her brightly coloured collection of spare cloths that she had stored in Naruto's house in case of emergencies like what happened last night.

Naruto was busy digging through his piles of cloths for something to wear, his three tails wagging happily were the only part of him that was visible. He only really had light tans and reds to wear as he insisted on only buying cloths that were the same colours as his tails and ears. Eventually deciding on a simple plain red t-shirt with his clan's swirl symbol on its back and a plain tan pair of cargoes, which seemed to be the only combination he ever wore if you asked his sister or best friend, he quickly bolted back into his kitchen/dinning room and waited excitedly for his sister to make his ramen.

Tohru, now dressed in her favourite bright yellow and pink peach kimono, was simply adding the water to the cup ramen while she began to hum a small melodical tune, trying desperately to improve her mood. She laughed heartily when she noticed Naruto staring at her impatiently when her humming started to distract her from the 'more important task'. Looking at him now she had to admit out of everyone Naruto had probably changed the most over the last six year, more so then even Hinata.

He wasn't notable taller, sure he had grown but out of everyone she knew of his age group he was perhaps the second shortest, second only to Hinata. What had changed significantly however, was his facial features. His cute little baby face had lost most of its chubby baby aspects and was becoming far more sleek and defined, his mouth was wider, his lips a darker shade then normal and his eyes were even more slanted at the top and his irises seemed to have a small rim of red around them. She had to admit that she was sort of jealous she wasn't his age because she knew he would be an absolute lady killer with his foxy looks when he grew up. Literally foxy in his case.

His face wasn't the only thing that changed however. His ears and tails that were once quite fluffy had lost their 'baby fur' and had become more sheik and smooth. His general movement had also seemed to have changed, as he moved far more gracefully and quieter then he did when she first met him. Now if you were to watch him play in the park and in the trees, one would literally think he was a fox, just by his graceful and well flowed body movements.

On top of all this he also seemed to have adopted more animalistic behaviours. Most of them included different communication sounds and toned growls and while he hadn't done anything too animalistic like peeing on a tree he had done a few that worried and annoyed her. For example he almost constantly pushed his head under her hand so that she would rub/scratch his ears, quite like what a pet would do, or he would follow her around like a confused and lost puppy whenever she had her period. She knew it was probably some sort of instinct but it still irritated the hell out of her.

Overall all though she attributed most of his changes to his understanding and acceptance of what he was, allowing his natural thoughts to occur because he would let them instead of holding them back thinking that everyone would hate him for his odd behaviour. Either that or it was that book that Hitomi had given him, she knew if nothing else she could always blame that book. Even though she knew he was learning tremendous amounts of knowledge from it, she didn't particularly agree with two of the abilities in particular that it described to her prankster brother. Both of them being common Kitsune transformations.

Snapping back to reality when Naruto literally barked his impatience, she resumed making the ramen. When it was finished she set the bowls on the table and handed him a pair of chopsticks. When he began to eat without them as fast as he could Tohru glared at him hard.

"Naruto-kun! I will not have you eating out of the bowl like some mindless animal! You will eat like a civilised person or I will never make your ramen ever again!" Well with a threat like that you really didn't have to tell him twice, wide eyed from fright Naruto rushed to grab his utensils before eating his breakfast slowly, the salty soup soothing his aching stomach.

Satisfied that her little brother had followed her instruction she began eating her own ramen. That is until Naruto interrupted her, which considering he himself was eating meant that it had to be important. "Hey Neechan, why did I set my alarm so early this morning? Did I have something I had to do?" Tohru just looked at her brother with a dumbstruck face, something that seemed to offend the little hanyou. "Hey stop looking at me like I'm an idiot! If I forgot something important at least I am trying to remember what it was!"

"Um… Naruto-kun, it's your first day at the Academy remember?" Tohru answered him monotonously. Out of everything he could forget this certainly wasn't one she would have expected as he had been looking forward to this day for the last two years.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock and his tails began to shudder as excitement built within him. How could he have forgotten something so important? "Oh no! That's right! How could I forget? There's so much to do! I have to eat, then pack, then pick up Hinata-chan and Ino-chan. I'm gonna be so late!" Naruto shouted while hastily digging into his ramen, intent on finishing it as soon as possible. As soon as he was done he sped throughout his house, grabbing everything that he thought he would need for the day and placing them all in a pile in the middle of his kitchen.

Tohru just shook her head and decided to leave her little brother to his own devises. He would as usual end up creating more mess then necessary therefore wasting more time and then try to get her to help him clean it all up. _'Not this time, he can clean up his own mess for once. It will be a good lesson for him to finally learn to slow down and not be so impatient all the time.' _She thought to herself as she ate her ramen in silence.

Hinata Hyuga was having the time of her life, never had she felt as happy as she did now. She was currently surrounded by the largest and most beautiful field of flowers she had ever seen, filled with an assortment of lavender, lilac, sunflowers and daisies, the light purples and yellows mixing together and moving beautifully in the evening breeze. The setting wasn't what had her intrigue however, it was the handsome hanyou sitting with her amongst the flowers, feeding her from his bento that had her attention.

She didn't know how it happened or when but apparently the boy she had developed an intense crush on had invited her out for a picnic in this wonderful field. As she ate another bite of the offered onigiri she tried desperately not to faint from embarrassment; as was becoming her habit whenever she was too physically close to him. And as she swallowed the flavoured rice ball she opened her lavender eyes to watch her date.

He was smiling at her with his usual big foxy grin as the gentle breeze caused his lengthened golden locks to sway gently. But there was something different about this particular smile, it seemed to contain something more then his other smiles, a sort of glow, almost like this was a smile reserved only for her, to show her his affection. As she was being captivated by his beautiful smile and lost within the ocean of emotions of his sapphire blue eyes, she barely noticed him move closer to her. That is until she felt one of his tails wrap affectionately around her waist to pull her closer to him.

Not ready to be suddenly pulled in a direction she freaked out a little bit, causing Naruto to lose his grip which then caused her to fall onto his chest knocking him to the ground. She lay on top of him for less then a second before she desperately tried to scramble off of him, apologising the whole time. However, she found that she couldn't pull away as Naruto's tail had once again quickly wound its way around her waist, while the other two helped support her while she lay on top of him.

Blushing a shade the would put a tomato to shame Hinata tried desperately to keep herself from fainting at being so close to her crush. Her mind was racing almost as much as her heart, she didn't know what to do, Naruto was so close to her that she could actually fell his breath on her neck. Hinata's eyes, which up until then had been tightly shut, shot open when she felt her crush's clawed hands caress her cheeks and slowly run affectionately through her hair. His hand was warm, and it felt so comforting and pleasant that Hinata could barely control herself not to lean into his embrace.

Smiling shyly with a blush that still covered her entire face, Hinata forced herself to slowly look back into his eyes. However, that confidence was wasted as she once again became lost within the beauty of his twin sapphire oceans. She tried desperately to speak, praying for all the confidence in the world to be able to tell him how she felt about him, to be able to say that she loved him. But alas she could not even speak a syllable as her nervous stutters and her quite voice made it virtually impossible for anyone to understand her.

She was about to try again to gather the courage to speak but was cut off as the hanyou she was laying on top of started to chuckle mirthfully. "Hina-chan, even after all these years you still stutter like that." Hinata blushed even deeper at that and lowered her head slightly in shame, but quickly shot back up when she heard his continued sentence. "But that's just another thing about you that makes you so cute." Naruto just flashed her another smile when Hinata turned her head away, almost like she was somehow hoping that her long hair would help hide her ever increasing embarrassment.

'_He… He thinks my stuttering makes me cute? And its… 'another thing' that makes me cute.' _Hinata felt her head begin to spin as her consciousness began to fade. Just that one thought was enough to send her over the edge but she was luckily saved when she was distracted by an odd wet feeling running over her cheek.

Startled by the odd feeling Hinata snapped her head back to face her crush, just in time to see his tongue retract back into his mouth, causing her to freeze and her eyes to widen in both shock and surprise. _'Did he… Did he just lick me! But… Isn't a lick for foxes like a… like a… kiss? Did Naruto-kun just kiss me?'_

"Hehe, you'll always be my Hina-chan. No matter how much you stutter or how weak you think you are, you will always be my angel." Hinata's already super-accelerated heart rate increased by at least two-fold as Naruto removed his tails from under her as he began to move his face closer to hers while he closed his eyes.

'_What is he doing? Is he going to… to… kiss me? What should I do what should I do?' _Hinata continued to freak out in her mind as Naruto pushed himself closer to her. Barely a few centimetres apart, Hinata could barely comprehend what was going on as time around her seemed to slow down. She had been trying to gain his notice and affection for years now, and all of a sudden here he was, lying under her about to kiss her without an explanation.

She didn't know what to do as she had never kissed someone before, but she really didn't care. Here he was, the object of her affection preparing to kiss her, she didn't have the confidence to do tell him how she felt let alone kiss him. Her confusion and embarrassment was clouding her thoughts, she just didn't know what to do. So she just did the first thing that felt natural to her. She lowered her face towards him closing her eyes also. She didn't care if she fainted half-way through or after, if she didn't have the courage to tell him how she felt then this was probably the only other way to explain.

However, like all wonderful things, it had to end eventually. And it was thanks to an almost monotonous voice calling to her and three loud knocks that caused the young heiress to wake up from her romantic dream. "Hinata-sama, it is time to wake up now. Today is your first day at the academy so I thought I should get you up early." Hinata's eyes shot open at the voice, and she watched as the young hanyou beneath her slowly vanished into darkness who was then quickly followed by the rest of her dream world. But not before a small curse left her mouth that her cousin couldn't even wait a few more seconds to wake her.

Opening her pupiless lavender eyes, Hinata sighed as she was greeted with the sight of her ceiling. She had been having yet another dream about her best friend and crush. It seemed recently that was all they were ever about, they were either a dream that she had confessed her affection to him or visa versa or they were ones where he kissed her. She knew that such dreams were probably too mature for someone not quite eleven but she just couldn't help it. She had long ago identified the feelings she got when she was around her best friend thanks to Tohru and had been trying ever since to find a way to tell him of her feelings.

He meant everything to her, he was her first friend, the first person outside of her parents to actually believe in her, and he was the main person to help comfort her and be there for her when she lost her mother. He was kind, clever, brave and always made her laugh and most of all he was always there for her to support her in everything she did. She just wished that she had the confidence to tell him so or that he would notice her affection of him someday.

Pushing her covers off of herself, Hinata sat up and jumped off her bed to prepare for the day, the excitement practically beaming off her as she began to think of all the fun times she would have at the academy with her crush. "T-Thank you N-Neji-niisan. I w-will be o-out soon." Having been awaiting her response outside of her room Neji wordlessly nodded before he began to walk back to his room to prepare for his second year of the academy, having started a year ahead of Naruto and Hinata.

Walking towards the direction of her wardrobe Hinata stopped by her duchess to cross of today from her calendar and to lift up her favourite photo frame as she did every morning. "G-good morning m-mother. G-guess what? Today is m-my first d-day at the a-academy…" Hinata explained to the picture she held lovingly within her hands. It was a picture of Naruto, baby Hanabi, and herself all sitting on the hospital bed around her mother. Herself and Hanabi were on either side of a happily smiling Hitomi, while Naruto stood between them holding out the victory/peace sign with his usual goofy foxy grin. It was taken the day before her mother died.

It was one of her most precious possessions and often treated the memorial as some sort of connection to her mother as she spoke to it every morning and night. Telling her mother all the things that she was going to do and already did that day. She would also carry it around with her quite often on days where she felt the need for extra courage or support. Naruto was always there to help her, but there were only so many things she could ask of him and talk to him about.

She also would often ask her mother for advice on how to talk to Naruto about her feelings towards him, even though she knew she would never get a response she would always feel more at ease afterwards. "I-I'm really n-nervous though… w-what if… what i-if I'm n-not good e-enough to be a n-ninja… or i-if I make a f-fool of myself… and w-what if n-no one w-wants to be my f-friend and t-thinks I'm weird…" She knew it was all just her low self-confidence that caused such unsettlingly and nerve-wracking thoughts and that she should think better of herself but she just couldn't help it.

Staring with loving eyes at her mother, Hinata nodded a few times as kind thoughts entered her mind. She always seemed to feel better and slightly more confident about herself when she spoke to her mother, whether it was just from her own pleasant thoughts of what her mother would have said to her or if it was something else, she would never know.

"You a-are right mother. I-I should be f-fine, and e-even if I-I don't make a-any friends a-at least I still h-have Naruto-kun and Ino-san." Smiling brightly at the picture she gave her mother a quick kiss before placing it back down, but not before giving the Naruto in the picture a quick kiss too. Which caused her to run quickly to her closest in embarrassment as her face turned bright red. It was silly of her yes and she was probably far too young to decide on what love truly was, but she didn't care. One day she would prove herself to both her crush and gain his affection and the prove the elder's of her clan wrong, as they constantly made it clear that they thought she was unfit to be the next head of the family. They were her dreams and just like her best friend; if he wouldn't ever give up, neither would she.

Quickly grabbing her usual attire which consisted of a small mesh undershirt, three-quarter length navy blue skinny's and her favourite tan overcoat which was at least three sizes to big, which was mainly so she could hide her face underneath its fluffy collar when she got too embarrassed, she quickly through them on and rushed out of her room. She wasn't usually in such a rush but she was too excited to slow down. Perhaps a habit that she was picking up from spending so much time with Naruto.

Naruto gave a quick waved hi to the Hyuga guards as he sped through the main gates of the Hyuga compound. Usually the guards would stop anyone who approached the estate and run a few scans with their Byakugans to make sure it wasn't anyone disguised that could be a threat, but they knew Naruto well enough by now to know that practically no one could possibly impersonate Naruto's over-hyperactive personality. And even if they could they wouldn't be able to copy his 'unique' chakra signature that he constantly emitted. So they just did what they usually did, which was greet the young hanyou politely and step aside for him to bolt past them and to allow his sister to follow after him.

Tohru rolled her eyes as her little brother almost crashed into the gate guards because he didn't slow down enough to let them step aside. Apologising quickly to the guards for her little brother's impatience she leapt off after him. He may be very fast for his age, especially when running on all fours like practically always was, but she wasn't now ranked Jonin for nothing and was easily able to keep up with him without even breaking a sweat.

Quickly turning a corner Naruto sped towards the closest door of Hinata's house, intent on arriving as quickly as possible as it was already 7 o'clock and class started at 8. Meaning that if he didn't hurry he was going to be late, well in his mind he would be late. In reality it would only actually take at most thirty minutes to go from his house to Hinata's then to Ino's then to the academy. But he was just far too impatient to think like that.

Spying the poach to the front door of Hinata's house, Naruto bent down low as he ran and leapt up, ignoring the five steps that everyone else used. However, having only recently grown his third tail Naruto still hadn't quite adjusted to the increase in muscle density and chakra that it gave him, causing him to jump a lot higher then planned.

'_Oh no! I'm gonna crash into doors! If I break another one Hiashi's gonna kill me!' _Naruto screamed to himself as he desperately tried to look for something that he grab onto to halt or alter his jump. But alas there was no poll or column so Naruto just had to close his eyes and wait for the inevitable. After a few seconds of hearing or feeling no crash Naruto's eyes shot open as he felt himself being held by his scruff just above the top of the black backpack he was wearing, his nose detecting the scents of both Hiashi and his sister behind him.

Hiashi gently placed the little hanyou within his grasp down in front of him and waited patiently for said hanyou to turn around and look at him. "Naruto Uzumaki. What have I told you about running around the main house?" Hiashi asked in an oddly amused tone.

Naruto nervously scratched the back of his head as he looked back and forth at the two Hyugas in front of him. Hiashi wasn't quite the man that he was when Naruto first met him. Sure he was still kind and accepting of him and often treated him to ramen, but ever since the day Hitomi died Hiashi had just never seemed to recover and had adopted a far more serious attitude to life. Often enforcing traditional Hyuga laws that he use to be quite lenient on, even going so far as activating a branch members seal once. His smiles were also a lot less common, and if it wasn't for his brother Hizashi constantly offering his support then Naruto would hate to think on how unhappy and cruel he might have become. However, as long as he was still nice to himself, Hinata and Hanabi then Naruto would never have a problem with him, he just wished that there was something he could do to make him happier.

"Hehe… um… you said that if I did then you wouldn't take me, Hinata and Hanabi for ramen for a whole week." Naruto answered as his voice started to croak. He knew that he had disobeyed another rule, but no payed for ramen at Ichiraku for a whole week was like the punishment from hell.

Hiashi smirked to himself slightly, pleased with the young hanyou's reaction. He may not be able to instruct and teach Naruto manners and appropriate behaviour like his wife use to be able to, but he still did a good job. "Precisely, so if you want to have any Ichiraku ramen over the next week I'm afraid that you will have to pay for it yourself." Naruto lowered his head and ears dejectedly as he accepted his punishment. At least he was saved from crashing into the sliding doors as his punishment would have been far more severe if he did.

His head shot back up however as his ears picked up on the sound of running feat and he detected the distinctive smell of lavender, causing him to temporarily forget his sorrow and remember why he had come.

"Oh that's right! I have to pick up Hinata-chan! We are starting the academy today!" Naruto announced excitedly as he quickly opened the sliding door, careful to not pierce the thin rice paper with his claws, and bounced inside. Closely followed by Hiashi and Tohru, both of whom were sighing at his hyperactivity and fast changing emotions.

Naruto followed the scent of lavender down the many halls of the main house until he located his best friend running out of her little sister's room carrying Hanabi with her. Naruto smiled brightly as his best friend and her sister approached him. Both of them had grown a lot over the last six years, each on resembling one of their parents.

Hinata had grown only a little higher but it was her face and shape that had changed the most. She appeared to be developing faster then any other girl her age and was starting to show signs of entering adolescence very early, if the slight change in her hips and bust were any indication. Her face was quite different too, losing most of her baby features and adopting the more feminine features of her mother. Her eyes were larger and more womanly, her cheekbones had risen, and her face had become more defined. Her hair had grown exponentially now reaching her lower back. She had once thought of cutting it short but once Naruto had said that she would look even more beautiful with longer hair it didn't take long for her to make up her mind.

Hanabi on the other hand was no longer a little baby and had grown to be just a little taller then Hinata had been at her age. She had definitely inherited primarily her father's genes and it showed even more now that she was six. Her general frame was smaller and seemly straighter then her sister's and her long brown hair looked identical to her father's. Her face was quite feminine like her sister's but had her father's serious and stoic structure to it, whether that be genetic or because she was constantly mimicking her father's frowns and other serious expressions no one knew.

"Morning Hinata-chan. Ready for our first day at the academy?" Naruto asked while smiling brightly, his tails thrashing around demonstrating his excitement. Hinata cursed herself for her shyness as his adorable smile caused her to blush slightly and making it harder for her to answer him. Luckily for Hinata, the sister she held within her arms didn't take it lightly at being ignored.

"Aren't you forgetting someone Naruto?" Little Hanabi asked in her most grown up and commanding voice she could muster, almost perfectly imitating her father's seriousness. Naruto smirked evilly within his mind as he thought up a way to tease the little Hyuga. Sitting down slowly, Naruto lowered his head and ears while pretending to cry, faking that she had hurt his feelings.

"You… you didn't have to be mean, I knew you were there… I'm sorry…" As Naruto's crocodile tears hit the ground Hanabi leapt out of her sister's arms. Falling for his façade and feeling absolutely dreadful at having hurt her big brother figure, she rushed towards him before tackling him in a vicegrip-like hug apologising profusely over and over again for hurting his feelings. Naruto was able to hold his little façade together for only a few seconds before falling over and rolling on the ground in an outburst of laughter. Hanabi, who was almost pulled down with the laughing hanyou, immediately realised that she had been tricked and stamped down hard on one of Naruto's tails to express her anger at being tricked.

"You're the one who's mean onii-san! I thought I had hurt your feelings." Hanabi not only resembled her father but also had seemed to inherit most of his personality, so when she was cross, she would let everyone know in anyway she could. Naruto, having been silenced from his laughter by his aching tail just argued with the little hyuga that he was only teasing and that she didn't have to stomp on his poor tail.

Hinata, often being the mediator between her little sister and Naruto decided to defuse the situation as quick as possible before it escaladed. Which if one of the elders saw then they would be all in big trouble as it was very dishonourable for any member of the main house to argue or fight. Stepping forward she stood shyly between her little sister and best friend and commanded in her own shy way for them to stop. "Um… H-Hanabi-chan, Naruto-kun. I-I think y-you should b-both calm down. Besides, we m-might be l-late for our f-first day at the academy."

Hanabi just pouted childishly and claimed that Hinata was just defending Naruto before stomping off back into her room. But of course not before giving both Hinata and Naruto a quick goodbye hug and kiss, indicating her anger to be only play.

Hinata just sighed at her little sisters actions before turning back to face Naruto, a small blush appeared on her face when she saw his bright beautiful smile. It was always such a happy smile, filled with confidence. But in a way she kind of wished that it was like the smile she saw in her dream. "Well N-Naruto-kun. Are you r-ready for our first d-day?" She asked excitably.

Naruto just flashed a bigger smile before jumping up and down excitably. "Hell yer I am! Me with my Kitsune Magics and you with your awesome Gentle Fist and Byakugan I'm sure we will be top of the class through all three years!" Naruto's enthusiasm and confidence in both his own and her abilities, caused Hinata to blush multiple shades of red from his praise. She always secretly loved hearing him praise her as it always made her feel a little be more confident and secure in herself, even if only for a little while.

She started to mumble under her breath that she wasn't that good and that he was only saying those things to be nice. But was cut off when her father's hand being placed on her shoulder startled her. "You will be fine my daughter. You have a very good understanding of our bloodline, plus your practice spars with Neji and Naruto have improved your skills exponentially. You just have to be more confident in yourself, we all believe in you. Isn't that right Naruto-kun." Hinata giggled when Naruto started jumping up and down ranting his agreement over and over again, he always seemed to turn even the most serious of moments funny.

Turning to her father, Hinata smiled up at him and gave him a big hug in thanks, he didn't give her praise as much anymore but she knew that he loved her with all his heart. "Thank you f-father, I promise t-to do the b-best I can to make your p-proud."

"There's no need as I am already proud of you. Despite what the elders say, you are a powerful Hyuga. But just like the little flower buds you grow in your flower pot, you just need a little more time to fully bloom." He answered while kneeing down and hugging his daughter back. "Now I think that both of you should be heading off soon, I believe that you might be late if you don't."

Hiashi smirked from the shocked look that flashed across Naruto's face at the thought of being late, for some reason Hiashi always found it funny to tease the little hanyou. Whether it be because it felt like some way of getting back at the trickster for his pranks or something else he would never know. Lifting up the carry bag he had with him, he handed it to Hinata before ushering them out. Even though he wouldn't be able to take them all the way to the academy because of the constant clan meetings he had. He could easily see them out of the main gate.

Hiashi, Hizashi, Hisano, Hanabi and Tohru waved the two children goodbye and wished them luck on there first day. Each of them had attended the academy at one stage or another and knew how exciting but daunting it could be. Hiashi was beaming with happiness as he watched his daughter head out the gates with Naruto, the first day of the academy was always a proud moment for any parent and he was certainly no exception. However, he did wish he could share such an experience with his wife, she would have loved to see them off.

Noticing the change in his Hiashi's expression, Hizashi knew what his brother was thinking and so placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "She is still with us my brother. I know she is watching down from the heavens with the same sweet smile she always had." Hiashi didn't want to look at his brother in fear of breaking down in tears once again. Instead he just nodded his agreement.

"Yes I know she is little brother, I… I just wish that I could see that smile of hers one more time." Hiashi paused for a moment to gather his emotions as he pictured his wife's beautiful face. Such thoughts often hurt his aching heart, but there was always a certain amount of comfort that seemed to come with seeing her smile, even if it was only an image in his imagination.

Looking back towards the gates they could almost no longer see Naruto and Hinata as they walked down the path from the Hyuga Estate. "They grow up so quickly don't they brother? I remember like it was yesterday when we were busy calming Naruto-kun down as he rushed through the hallways screaming that he had somehow killed Hinata-chan when in fact she just passed out from low blood pressure."

Hiashi gave a small chukle at his brother, he would never understand how they are related as Hizashi always seemed so much stupider then he ever was. "It _was_ yesterday you fool. Naruto-kun was freaking out because Hinata-chan passed out after he hugged her to closely."

"Hey I may be a fool, but at least I'm not an emotionless stick. If I want to cry I just cry, I don't care about the whole Hyuga decorum. Anyway, you do realise she passes out because she has a crush on the our favourite blond hanyou. I really feel sorry for you brother, not even eleven and she's already having boy problems" Hisano and Tohru nodded in agreeance at the Hyuga decorum statement as they both hated to follow the set instructions, mainly because they were of the branch family and everyone in the branch family hated the rules. But they both facepalmed at Hizashi's stupidity when he stated Hinata's crush on Naruto like no one knew at all.

"Yes I know how she feels about Naruto-kun, everyone but Naruto knows, and as her father I will support her all the way. If the Hyuga Elders disagree with her choice in suitor then she will need more then just my support but I will still be there for her. As for your… pity about Hinata-chan already having boy problems all I can say is that I don't envy you when a certain _three_ reach that age. I said that your words would come back to bite you, and they did on the very day those three were born." Almost on queue three four year old identical looking girls rushed out of the main house and started bouncing around Hisano.

"Mother have we come too-"

"Late to say goodbye to-"

"Hina-neechan and Fox-niichan?"

The three energetic triplets asked one after the other in complete and perfect timing, each of them pulling gently on their mother's dress to get her attention. Kneeing down and hugging each one of her daughters, Hisano just explained that they had only just missed them. At that small piece of knowledge, the triplets looked at each other before starting to tear up. They loved their cousin and kitsune brother and were really looking forward to saying goodbye to them both.

Hizashi walked over to his triplet daughters and couldn't help but smile at them, cause even when they cried they were the cutest and most adorable things in the world to him. They were the perfect amalgamation between himself and his wife, they had his strong and firm build while having their mother's grace and beauty. Their hair was pitch black like there mothers, and they also inherited her shape, but had his firm bone structure. There was practically no way to tell them apart as not only their looks, behaviour and personalities were identical but also their chakra signature was identical, something almost unheard of. The only person who always knew who was who was Hisano, and everyone just attributed that to a mother thing.

"Don't worry my daughters there is no need to cry. You will be able to see them both later today when they have finished at the academy. Now come on, cheer up ok?" All three daughters smiled brightly as their father bent down and hugged them together. They always seemed to like there father's hugs the best, they didn't know why but for some reason they always felt safest and happiest when around him. Even if he could never tell who was who like their mother could.

"But father we didn't-"

"Get to say goodbye to-"

"Neji-niisan either.-"

"He always-"

"Just seems to-"

"Ignore us."

Hizashi frowned slightly at that, his son just seemed to be getting more and more dismissive of his little sisters and it was starting to worry him. Before Hinata's kidnapping six years ago he seemed to be getting better and started to open up a little towards his cousin and Naruto. But ever since that horrible night he had been putting every ounce of focus and time he had into training himself. Hizashi knew that it was because Neji felt guilty that he wasn't the one to save his cousin, but he believed that his son was taking it too far and worried that he was perhaps becoming too hollow.

"I shall talk to him about it when he comes home, I'll tell him to be nicer to you all ok?" Hizashi waited for them to all nod there heads before he ushered them back inside the main house. "We are all going to have breakfast now, would you be joining us brother, Tohru-san?" He asked turning to both Hyugas.

Tohru declined politely saying that she needed to start her guard rounds before she turned and left the two brothers alone while Hiashi just shook his head. "I must sadly decline little brother. I have a meeting with the elders to attend." Hiashi replied rather unenthusiastically. He turned to leave to attend said meeting, but not before he through his younger brother a quite jab. "Oh and Hizashi, you said that you were sorry that Hinata-chan is already having boy problems. But what you should really be sorry about is those little triplets or yours when they start having boy problems, especially because they are so alike that they will probably end up interested in the say person and fight amongst themselves for him." Hiashi could barely contain his laughter as Hizashi almost passed out from fright as all sorts of scenarios of what his daughters would be like when they had grown played through his mind.

The trip to Ino's house was relatively easy, there were still the usual hateful glares and insults but it had been years since Naruto was affected by them, especially because he was with his best friend. However the arrival was not as easy. Because when Ino's house came into view a certain scent entered his sensitive nose and Naruto froze, the hair on his ears and tail spiked slightly indicating his fright. He had visited Ino many times over the years but he had grown up to have an incalculable fear of Ino's mother. Rightfully so as the horrid memories of what she and those men did to him would always resurface in his mind.

The memories of the pain, of being cut, impaled and burnt practically alive tormented his mind as tears began to form in his eyes. The memories were always so real, so lifelike that Naruto could swear that sometimes he could feel the pain once again. Each stab that pieced a limb or tail, ever cut that Ino's mother inflicted upon his chest seemed to burn as the memories kept repeating themselves almost forcing the hanyou to his knees.

Hinata, sensing her crush's distress, reached out and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. "D-Don't worry Naruto-kun. I-I won't l-let her hurt you." She wasn't very confident in her fighting abilities but she would be damned before she let that woman hurt her Naruto. Naruto was luckily shaken enough by her words to overcome his fright and forced the horrible memories back into the deep recesses of his mind. But still wrapped one of his tails around her hand for comfort, a warm and calming feeling entered his chest when he did, before proceeding towards the house.

Hinata jumped slightly when Naruto wrapped his tail around her hand and was quickly lost in her own mind as she thought up various scenarios of snuggling up to her crush and cuddling the same tail while he kissed her. Three loud nocks from Naruto tapping on Ino's front door was all that was required to pull her from her dreamworld however. Causing her to blush profusely as she realised what she had been day dreaming about. _'I really wish I could tell him… Why can't I do it? I try so hard and I just can't seem to be able to speak to him about how I feel before I faint… I'm so weak…'_

Naruto and Hinata had been hoping that either Inoichi or Ino answered the door, but quickly cowered away from the door when they saw who answered it. "What the hell do you think _you _are doing here you little demon?" The blond woman screamed down at the terrified children. Or more specifically she screamed at Naruto, as she always seemed to completely ignore the Hyuga heiress.

Naruto instinctly lowered himself onto all fours and arched his back down as his tails placed themselves between his spread legs, hoping to all heavens that she wouldn't attack him again. Both children struggled to find the words to answer her as they both knew that she wouldn't tolerate them being ignorant of her. Naruto, being the more confident of the two despite what she had done to him, was the first to speak up. He however, couldn't bring himself to look her in the face, fearing those hateful and cold eyes he knew she was staring at him with.

"W-We um… are just here to pick up Ino-chan. I-It's our first day at the academy and I thought that all three of us good go together." Naruto tried his best to remain calm as he spoke to her, but the dark memories would always resurface within his mind. No matter how comforting his best friend was, she could never calm him when he was around Ino's mother.

Hinata could easily see the pain her crush was in just being in the woman's presence and she desperately tried to think of something she could do for him. She knew the best thing would be to stand between him and the hateful woman. But despite how much she knew it would help Naruto, she just couldn't bring herself to move as her own fear was halting her actions.

"If you think I would ever allow my daughter to remain in your filthy presence. Then you had better think again you tainted Yokai!" Naruto flinched and jumped back considerably when he saw her step forward, fists raised ready to remove him from the front porch by any means necessary. She hadn't even taken a full step however, before she was stopped by a voice almost equal to hers in volume.

"Mother! Leave Naruto-kun alone NOW!" Ino yelled before dashing through the door forcing herself between her mother and friend. Ino had changed a lot over the years and was the only girl her age apart from Hinata who had started to develop as a young woman. She had grown significantly taller, now standing over Hinata and Naruto by a good foot. Her bright blue eyes had darkened and complemented her hair perfectly. Her hair which used to be twin blond pigtails, were gone and now was just a single long ponytail that reached down to her lower back. She had chosen to leave the left half of her fringe in front of her face rather then gathering it in the ponytail however. Her build was solid and firm and her womanly curves were beginning to show, she was easily the thinnest out of the three pre-teens but with all her other features it just gave her a glowing athletic and beautiful body. Something that she took great pride in.

Both mother and daughter Yamanaka just glared at each other for a full five minutes, neither making a single movement or sound. But everyone knew that they were not simply standing there, but rather having a mental argument with each other.

It was well known but within Konoha and out that the Yamanaka clan could use powerful mind manipulation jutsu, but it was only known to a few that members of the Yamanaka clan, especially those directly related by blood, could project their thoughts and feelings into one another. Essentially allowing them to telepathically communicate with one another clan member. This ability was not only good for silently sharing family secrets amongst themselves so that their knowledge was never stolen or overheard by others, but it was also a common practice to use it for arguments so that no one around them is disturbed by what they argue about.

"Fine! But don't come crawling back he when he stabs you in the back and rips out your foolish trusting heart with his bare hands! I expected you of all people to be able to see the truth, but I can see that my expectations were far too high if you so blindly follow this thing!" Ino's mother screamed out loud while pointing accusingly at Naruto before storming back inside, slamming the door behind her.

Ino just shook her head to clear her mind of the hateful things her mother had said to her. The technique was quite useful but sometimes, especially when one of the users has such strong and powerful beliefs then sometimes, it had harmful side effects for the receiver. These effect commonly ranging between emotional confusion to full psyche disorientation. She was surprised and slightly shocked when she felt powerful but oddly fluffy objects wrap around her waist.

Naruto, having overcome his fear now the Ino's mother had left, pulled Ino to him with a tail for a big hug in thanks for standing up for him. On the outside he looked genuinely thankful, but on the inside he was raging. Raging at himself for being so weak and letting others stand up for him. How was he suppose to protect his family and friends if he was even afraid to stand up for himself from one person. He hated it, but it was something he would change, he had vowed on his mother's grave that he would protect everything precious to him, and come heaven or hell he would keep that vow even if it killed him.

Hinata was a little disappointed that Naruto wasn't hugger her, but she wasn't jealous of Ino. As Ino had stated quite clearly years ago that she would never interfere with Hinata's crush. A vow that had been taken when Ino's last best friend Sakura, had ended their friendship just because they liked the same boy, Sasuke Uchiha.

Deciding that it was best to hurry to the academy, both to arrive on time and to avoid any more dramas with Ino's mother, the three friends left together. Talking excitably amongst themselves about all the fun adventures awaiting them at both at the academy and after. Ino's mother, who had been watching the three children from her window turn her gaze back inside with a huff, only to meet the stern gaze of her husband.

"I don't want to talk about it Inoichi-kun, that demon will eventually turn on us and if he kills my daughter I will personally hold you responsible for allowing the filthy yokai near her." And with that, she left. But not before Inoichi noticed a strange flicker fall from his wife's face, a single tear. Which was only followed by hundreds more as she quickly ran from him to her room, to hide herself and her thoughts from her mind reading husband.

With Naruto, Hinata and Ino.

Naruto, being Naruto, was of course the one out in front of the three friends, nagging for them to speed up, while Hinata and Ino were straggling behind him. Purposely of course so they can talk about girl stuff. Or in Ino's words, she just wanted to know if Hinata had told Naruto about her feelings yet.

"Soooo Hinata-san. Have you maybe, told him yet?" Hinata blushed furiously at her best female friend's statement to which Ino just laughed. She didn't know why, but she always loved making Hinata blush over Naruto, it was one of her favourite pastimes.

"Told who what?" Naruto called from a good fifty meters away. Even if he was moving faster then them he was still listening to their conversation, something that always irritated Ino.

"Turn your ears around Naruto-baka! We are talking about girl stuff so you better stop listening right now or I'll whistle as loud as I can!" To most such a threat would either be harmless or completely confuse them on how it could be a threat. But for Naruto, hearing such a horrible sound with his superior hearing could be very disorientating and painful. So heeding her order Naruto quickly turned his ears forward and focused as hard as he could on blocking out their speech.

Hinata the whole time was trying to get her blood flow away from her face, she knew that Ino always liked to pick on her about her crush on Naruto but every time 'telling him that she liked him' was brought up she would have a hard time even staying conscious. She wanted to, she wanted nothing more then to be able to tell him her feelings, but whenever she gathered up enough courage to even try she just always fumbled up her words and it came out wrong, often confusing her hanyou crush on what she was meaning.

"I-Ino-san… Y-you don't h-have to be s-so mean. I will t-tell him, I-I just haven't f-found t-the right time." Hinata whispered back from underneath her fluffy collar. Ino just smiled mischievously before leaning in so she could whisper into Hinata's ear.

"Well if you wait too long you never know what will happen." Seeing Hinata's inquisitive look Ino decided to elaborate. All the while desperately trying to keep from laughing. "Think about it, Naruto-kun is quite cute, and I'm sure despite his… yokai heritage there will be quite a number of girls at the academy that will think the same thing. If you wait too long one of them might snag him and then what would you do?" Hinata's eyes widened enormously at this, she hadn't thought of that possibility and truth tell, she was terrified of it.

"Y-You are right… I-I don't think I-I would b-be a-able to live without him… H-he has always been t-there for me. E-ever since I was f-five. W-what should I d-do Ino-san?" Various images of Naruto marrying other girls filtered though her mind, and she gripped her heart at the pain those images caused her. She wanted so bad to be forever with him, to help him through all the hard times, to be there for him like he was always for her, to hold him lovingly in her arms and have him hold her back, to kiss him. She just couldn't explain the emotions that flooded through her mind and body whenever she was close to him, it was almost like everything in the world would suddenly become perfect every time she touched him and she loved the happiness he brought to her.

But most of all she wanted him to be happy, because out of everyone she knew he deserved happiness the most, he did everything he could to make others happy but only she could tell that he was always hurting. Whenever someone was hurt, whenever someone was unhappy, whenever there was something he couldn't do to help someone he hurt. It was just who he is, he sacrificed his happiness so that other could be happy.

So if another girl could provide him with more happiness then she could, as much as it would hurt her, she would prefer it like that. That is how pure her love for him is, for she wants nothing more for her best friend then to see him happy. However, if there she could prove to him, show him, tell him that she could be the one to provide that happiness. Then that would be even better.

"Wow… you really do like him don't you? Well then I guess it can't be helped. Naruto! Get over here now! Hinata-san wants to tell you something really important!" Before Hinata could even think about covering her friend's mouth up, Naruto had already started to quickly and excitably run back to his two best friends.

When Naruto was within normal talking distance he stopped and asked what it was that Hinata wished to tell him. Hinata could barely keep herself conscious let alone keep her furiously obvious blush down. She didn't want to ask him out like this, it was just not right. But Ino was right, if she waited too long then she might lose him. "I-I-I-I um… I-I w-was w-w-wondering i-i-if y-you m-might l-like t-to…." Hinata's voice was beyond a whisper when she started talking and it wasn't long into her sentence that even Naruto couldn't tell what she was saying.

Ino, getting a little annoyed at her best friend's shyness, decided to give her a little push. Literally. However, this just unbalanced the Hyuga heiress who was busying being embarrassed and caused her to fall forward onto Naruto. Recovering quickly from her shock at falling, it didn't take Hinata long to realise that she was being held up, and also who by. Apologising profusely for falling into him, Hinata thrashed around in a desperate attempt to pull herself free from his hold, despite of course how much she wanted to say held in his strong arms. However, her flailing just caused Naruto to lose his hold on her and almost fell over himself, the way he held her now had his face mere centimetres from hers. Wide eyed, Hinata recalled her dreams from last night and felt her face almost turn to fire as she realised on how close his mouth was to hers. _'It would be so nice… to just kiss him now…'_ However, before that thought could even cross her mind her consciousness slipped from her and she fainted in his arms.

"Argh! Hinata-chan! What's wrong! What's wrong! What's wrong! Ino-chan, she just died! What do I do?" Ino had been keeping in her laughter for long enough now, and upon seeing Naruto completely flip out over Hinata 'dieing' she just couldn't hold it in.

However, seeing his clearly worried eyes Ino put his mind at rest as soon as she got her laughter back under control. "Don't worry Naruto-kun, she just fainted from surprise at falling. She will be all right in a little while. Why don't you carry her though as we might be late if we wait here for her to wake up." Calming down significantly, Naruto nodded his agreement before carefully lifting his best friend up and carrying her bridal style in his arms before setting off to the academy with Ino close behind him.

He was very concerned for his best friend's health because she seemed to be fainting more and more these days. "Hey Ino-chan, do you think that Hinata is sick? I mean I know she always gets red in the face and stuff, and she has always done that. But recently she has been getting red more often and faints a lot… I'm gonna have to talk to Tohru-neechan about getting Hinata-chan a doctor."

Ino just decided to nod in agreement to prevent Naruto from confusing himself any more then was necessary. But on the inside she was having the time of her life laughing at her best friend's problem. _'Hehe, you really have a lot of work ahead of you Hinata. He really doesn't have a clue. For a Kitsune he really isn't that wise. Although I do think they would make for an adorable couple, I could just imagine little red and lavender kitsune hanyous running all around Konoha.'_

In the counsel meeting room

Appearing in a swirl of leaves, he looked around cautiously. Analysing the situation and those around him with practiced and keen eyes. His façade of perfect calmness and despondence covering his conflicting inner emotions, the stoic young man nodded his head slightly to indicate his readiness. He knew what they would ask, he knew that that wouldn't force it upon him, and yet, for some reason he felt compelled to comply with their request. It would shatter both his mind and body forever, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make, because for him it was a necessary end to protect those he cared about the most.

"I assume you know the reason why you were called here." One of the older figures at the left table asked him suddenly. Upon his nod, another member spoke up.

"Then it is safe to assume that your investigation was correct? We have done everything we could after your first report, but we would like to hear of the current situation from your own mouth." Breathing heavily he glared coldly at the council member who spoke to him, he sounded a little too arrogant for his liking. Arrogance was the whole reason he was in this mess, but he knew that soon everything will be resolved and peace would remain.

"Yes, everything was correct. Their plans will be executed on the new moon, if everything they have planned is left unmatched then they _will_ succeed." He replied to them in an emotionless and carefree tone, completely opposite to how he really wanted to sound. This turmoil would haunt him for years to come, and he probably would never find peace, but again it was just a necessary end.

One of the other council members snorted at his statement, obviously displeased with it in some way. "That's kind of high of you to think of them, they are nothing but traitors! To think that such rabble could possibly succeed in such an act is just ludicrous." There it was again, the same arrogance he had grown to hate with every fibre of his being. For a split second he almost considered this lot no different to the one he had been shadowing for the last few months. But deep down he knew that even though they may also be arrogant, they were the better choice.

"It may be, or it may not. But it is of little importance. What is of importance is what the council has decided must be done about them." His gaze shifted quickly amounst those gathered, taking note of their nervous expressions. Whatever was decided obviously wasn't a nice decision, but necessary.

"That council has decided that the traitors are to be eliminated as soon as possible. We are unsure of how, but we need to act fast." He had predicted this decision, but in his heart he really didn't want to believe it. Now the time had come for him to throw away everything for the sake of his village, regardless of how the council wanted to do it, he knew there was only one way to do it.

"Then I shall dispose of them myself. It is only fitting since I am the only one capable of eliminating them all." He words left his mouth without any care or tone of mercy; he knew what had to be done. But it still ripped his insides to shreds knowing what he had to do. Many of the council members stood up, shouting their opinions that he shouldn't be the one to carry out the deed while others were saying that there had to be another way. But deep down they all knew he was right, normally something like this the clans of Konoha could deal with, but this was anything but a normal situation.

"I am certain that you all know I am correct. I am the only one with the power besides the Hokage to dispatch the traitors, I will serve my village to the end. Even if it means that I will live a life in exile." The gathered members all bowed their heads and quietly agreed with his words. They knew he was right, they just wished that they could have come up with something better.

The gathered members spoke amongst themselves for several minutes, before they all voted to accept his offer. They didn't like it, and each felt sick with guilt at agreeing to allow a child to perform such a soul crushing deed. Each one also offered a praise to his honour and sacrifice, he would always live on in their memories and it hurt them all that his sacrifice would never be known amongst the village and his name would be dishonoured for generations, all for one selfless act.

When they all had left, he left the same way he had entered. Except this time his own tears were mixed amongst the leaves. Tonight he would kill the traitors of Konoha, the traitors that had conspired to overthrow the Hokaga and install themselves as leaders of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Tonight he, Itachi Uchiha, would annihilate the entire Uchiha clan, his family to protect the village that he loved so much. And in doing so would save the future of Konoha at the cost of his own family and would be exiled as a reward. He knew the consequences, but it was all for the greater good, it was all for his village, and it was all a necessary end.


	17. Chapter 16: First Day and Uchiha Massacr

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Well heres another chapter as per the same time period between the last two chapters.

I personally am once again unhappy with this chapter, it just seemed to be lacking... emotion. I just haven't seemed to describe things the way I wanted. And this fanfiction seems to be turning into more of an action/adventure fanfiction then romance, which is really irritating me. Hopefully something I can fix up when its converted to novel format.

Speaking of the novel adaptation, to those who care it is progressing well. So far it seems to be a little similar to this fanfiction but that will certainly change soon. Overall though it is far more feudal japanese and adheres to the classical japanese mythology far better then the fanfiction ever will. OH! And my sister is also drawing the novels concept art. With her permission I may also start posting those pictures of DeviantART sometime in the near future.

Anyway, thats me done for the time been, I hope you find this chapter better then I did.

Dislaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plotline of this fanfiction.

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Chapter 16: First Day and Uchiha Massacre

The three children were practically jumping with excitement as they approached the massive twelve foot solid stone archway that provided the only entrance through an equally high stone wall to the Konoha Ninja Academy. Hinata was straggling a little behind her friends however, as she was still recovering from the shock of waking up in her crush's arms.

Peering through the large archway they all marvelled at the sight before them. The entirety of the academy consisted of one main building near the far left wall flagged by two smaller buildings either side, a large open training field, a large lake and everything was surrounded by, to Naruto's pleasure, a deep thick forest.

The main academy building was quite large, easily over a thousand square meters and was three stories high, while the other two buildings were less then half its size and only two stories high. The training field was littered with wooden training dummies, carved training logs, sparing rings, red and white target boards, and an assortment of sized holes, whether they were suppose to be there or if they were the results of failed jutsu the children couldn't tell.

The lake and its surrounding forest was probably the most eye-catching as the morning sun filtered down and refected beautifully of the still blue waters. The lake was easily able to fit over a hundred people in it, but as much as the cool water looked like an enticing swim, the three friends knew the lake's purpose was probably training orientated. If the two cut logs sticking out vertically in the centre of the lake was anything to go by.

Shaking their heads to clear their minds and in Hinata's case nervousness, the three children began to walk through the arch, fully prepared to initiate their training as Shinobi of Konoha. But just before reaching the arch, a puff of smoke infront of them nearly scared the life out of them. Well the two girls anyway, as Naruto had detected the follower awhile ago. From the smoke emerged a young woman with long flowing purple hair wearing traditional Anbu armour and a painted 'cat' mask.

"Morning Yugao-neechan!" Naruto called out to the Anbu in front of him before leaping into said Anbu's arms. Yugao was the second person within Konoha to be known as Naruto's big sister, the first of course being Tohru. Currently there is only three such people but Naruto loved each one with all his little heart, even his third big sister despite on how much she would scare him to death with her version of 'Tag' which always seemed to more resemble him running from a barrage of kunai then tag.

Yugao was quite happy that she had been given a break from her rounds long enough so she could see her favourite little friends off to their first day at the academy, although she was quite annoyed that Naruto had once again called out her name in public. "Naruto-kun. What have I told you about calling out my name while I'm on duty? I could get in a lot of trouble if my identity is known." Yugao lectured in a both demanding and loving way. Naruto always thought it was a stupid rule for the Anbu to follow and had voiced his opinion to Yugao, to which she just answered she would tell him when he was older.

Sure she did that just to annoy him because he always got really irritated when someone wouldn't tell him something, but she also did it because he was in fact just too young to understand. The members of the Anbu Black Ops were constantly thrown into the most dangerous of missions and often had to kill their own emotions just to cope with the pain of both loss of their conrads and the death that they so often caused.

The whole 'animal' persona that they would have painted on their masks and codenames they followed assisted the Anbu in mentally separating their dark duties from their normal life so that they had some way to just push aside the horrid memories with just a removal of a mask. Almost like taking off the mask removes the cold persona they all adopt and allows them to be themselves for even a few ever brief moments. Sure most of it just a form of psychological therapy, but in practice it worked.

"You have told me over and over not too reveal your name when there are people around." Naruto stated in a very bored expression, almost like he knew what was meant of him but just didn't care. "I think it's stupid! Hinata-chan and Ino-chan both know who you are, and anyone who knows that your Yugao could easily identify you as an Anbu because of your long _purple_ hair." Naruto exclaimed while tugging on her hair with a tail for emphasis.

"Stop pulling my hair!" She yelled at her hanyou brother while dropping him out of her arms. She had always been very sensitive about her hair and it was not because of the fact that she was the only person in Konoha with purple hair, because she wasn't, but because her hair was identical to her mother's. And she liked to keep it as such as a way to honour her mother, who had fallen during the Nine Tailed Fox's invasion. "Anyway, I know what you mean but its protocol so I shall follow it, and so should you."

Naruto hesitated for a moment but soon conformed to his big sister's demands and nodded his agreement. "Good, I am glad that we have an understanding. Now, I believe that today is your first day at the academy. Am I right you three?" She waited patiently for the three children to agree and smiled brightly behind her mask at how excited they sounded, before she clicked her fingers, causing three small brown leather boxes to appear in the palm of her hand. Each stacked upon the last.

She bent down slightly and handed one to each of the three children before her. They attempted to open them almost immediately but Yugao promptly stopped them before explaining her gifts. "These three boxes contain something my father gifted me with when I first started at the academy. They were made by him using a very rare metal and are of far greater quality then the normal ones you buy from equipment shops. I have kept them in top condition all these years hoping to one day pass them on to my own children as was my parent's wish. But I believe both father and mother would agree that you three are just as deserving. I hope you look after them well."

The three children were quite shocked to be receiving such gifts, especially considering they were meant for Yugao's own future children and voiced their thanks quite openly before opening their respective cases. Inside each case was a single kunai, but unlike normal kunai these were of unparallel beauty and quality. Where normal kunai were all made of a dull grey mixture of iron and magnesium, these kunai had a faint blue hue to them and almost seemed to glow lightly.

Just glancing at them within the leather cases anyone could tell they were of unsurpassed sharpness and Naruto of sworn he could hear light whistling almost like the very wind around them that touched the blades was cut in half. All in all, such exceptional kunai were the perfect gift to three ninja hopefuls just starting academy and the gifts were immediately put among the top of the three children's favourite possessions.

Yugao could feel tears come to her eyes as she glanced at the ecstatic faces of the three children before her. "I take it you all like them?" She was barely able to finish the sentence before she was tackled by Naruto and tightly hugged either side of her by Hinata and Ino.

"Oh yes, they are just beautiful. Thank you Cat-san." Ino said while still holding onto Yugao tightly. Beauty accessories were her favourite items, especially ninja accessories, and such a beautiful kunai was definitely something she appreciated.

"T-They are j-just wonderful. I-It was s-such a th-thoughtful gift, thank y-you." Hinata could easily see, despite the fact that Yugao was wearing a mask, that these kunai had great sentimental value to Yugao and she was going to treasure them just as much.

Naruto would have voiced his opinion but he was far too busy tossing the gifted kunai into the air and catching it with his three tails. He had long ago figured out the benefits of using his tails to carry and utilise various objects and this extended to weaponry also. Although it admittedly was quite difficult to catch and throw such a small object, a point to this was when one of his tails mis-caught it and almost dropped it. Almost dropped it being the key word as Yugao had appeared directly in front of him holding the kunai with a single finger balancing it with it's tip.

"Well maybe Ino-chan and Hinata-chan are deserving of them, but I'm not too sure about you you big knucklehead. So much power and yet you're still so clumsy. You can't even hold a kunai properly with those tails of yours." It may have sounded quite harsh to anyone else that could have heard it. But to those that knew Yugao and Naruto it was just her way of annoying him.

"Hey! That's not nice neechan! It's harder then you think to catch such a small object with just tails you know!" Naruto completely missed the playful tone in Yugao's insult and to him it was like a direct attack on his Kitsune honour.

Yugao just laughed it off before placing the kunai back in it's box and handing it back to her little brother. She had to admit, even if he was a complete knucklehead at least he was good for a good laugh, at his expense of course. "Well I have to head back to headquarters soon so I should be off. Have fun on your first day ok?" She said while hugging Ino and Hinata. "And you behaviour yourself! I don't want to be called out of duty again for crowd control because one of your pranks got out of hand again. If I am then I will drop you off at Anko's house for this afternoon. Am I clear Naruto-kun?"

Naruto cowered before his older sister's threatening tone and nodded his head vigorously, he loved his third older sister Anko, but a whole afternoon at her house would guarantee he would be dead by the end of it. As she always seemed to enjoy playing games that were life-threatening to him.

Shuddering at the memories of playing 'throw-as-many-kunais-at-Naruto-as-you-can-and-count-the-number-he-dodges game' Naruto, Ino and Hinata once again thanked Yugao for her gift before they all said goodbye and entered into the academy grounds. While Yugao disappeared the same way she came, in a puff of smoke.

Hokage Mountain

Itachi stood atop the head of the fourth hokage as he stared down at the village he loved so much. This was perhaps the last time he would ever see Konoha like this and he wanted to do nothing all day but imprint this peaceful image in his mind permanently. Activating his Sharingan eyes, Itachi quickly scanned and analysed every inch of Konoha, using the Sharingan's copying and memorising abilities to produce a photographic image of everything he saw.

Images flooded his mind as he pushed his Sharingan to copy faster and better then ever before, images of common things that everyone would take for granted brought a smile to the troubled Uchiha's normally stoic face. Images like a baker sell fresh bread, children playing together in the park, parents holding the hands of their children, the various ninja hopefuls gathering at the Konoha Academy. All of these images would forever be remembered how they were in his mind, and he would cherish them all. Especially the smiles he saw on practically everyone's faces. As these were the smiles he would be keeping alive forever by destroying his own family.

In a way he envied the teleoscopic vision of the Hyuga's Byakugan as his eyes couldn't zoom in to get more detailed photos. But it was enough, enough to keep him going through the hard times of exile as guilt would threaten to engulf his tortured mind. Guilt that had already began to tear at his usually stoic persona. His mother and father hadn't noticed the change in his mood this morning, showing how good he really was at hiding his torment. Even his brother who he shared the greatest bond with hadn't noticed anything off about him.

Thoughts of his brother Sasuke, almost was enough to push Itachi off the edge and break out in tears. He would be killing not only his entire family, but also his brother, the only person that Itachi really connected to and loved. Sasuke had yet to be fully tainted by the family's greed and lust for power and so Itachi wasn't sure if it was really worth killing him, or if he really could bring himself to in the first place. "There must be some way, something I can do. I… I just can't kill my itouto… but what can I do?" Itachi for the thousandth time today was confused on what he would do. He just didn't have the answer right now and had hoped that coming up to the Hokage Mountain would grant him the peace of mind to think logically. But alas his mind was just far to plagued by guilt and hurt to allow him such a last minute comfort.

Deciding to try and clear his mind with a bit of training, Itachi vanished from a top the fourth's stone head in the usual swirl of leaves. Uncharacteristically completely unaware of the two dark figures that had been watching him intently all morning.

Emerging from the trees they had been hiding in the clocked figures laughed evilly before turning to each other. "The Uchiha wiping out his whole family was not something that was predicted." The figure on the left stated with his usual gruff and deep sounding voice.

"Indeed, but certainly not something unwelcomed. He seems quite troubled by his choice but seems to think it for the best regardless of its outcome." The figure of the right answered with a lighter by older sounding voice. Both of them were extremely pleased with the events that were taking place tonight, it had been something that they could only hope to happen. Almost like timed unison they both broke out into evil laughter again before leaving with the same technique Itachi used.

Konoha Academy

The three friends had made a beeline for the main building and quickly ran towards the board containing the class roles. All three praying that they were in the same class together. Especially Hinata as she had hoped to spend even more time with her crush, and hopefully the time at the academy would help her confess to him.

As they gathered around though they could practically feel the air around them turn icy cold as the various adults and their children noticed the presence of a certain Kitsune hanyou.

"What is _it _doing here?"

"So the demon was allowed to enrol eh?"

"Great now we are going to train the filthy yokai on how to kill us."

"Mummy, am I allowed to beat up the kitsune?"

These were just a few of the Naruto heard whispered around him, but he couldn't care less. He had long since stopped caring about what they thoughts about him because he would always repeat the same sentence within his mind. _'I will prove them all wrong. And then they will respect me.'_

Ino and Hinata both touched Naruto on a shoulder to signify their support but he smiled brightly at both of his friends to indicate he was unaffected by the situation and all three proceeded to read the class listing for their respective names.

People four halls away covered their ears from the sudden shout of joy as the three friends found their names listed in the same class, class A-1. Overseen by Chunin Instructor Iruka Umino and Mizuki Uraki. Barely able to contain his joy Naruto lifted his two friends up with his three tails before speeding off towards their classroom. However, not being use to carrying and balancing the weight of two people he found it very hard to dodge most of the people in front of him, not to mention a certain Yamanaka who was quite pissed off about being carried.

"NARUTO! PUT ME DOWN NOW!" Ino yelled while bonking her blond friend on the head. She had never liked being carried by him or his tails and was seriously pissed off that he once again was ignoring her.

Hinata however was the complete opposite as she loved being held by Naruto and/or his tails, as they were always so comforting to her. Plus they were quite cuddly and very cute. If she was able to find the confidence she would ask Naruto to carry her everywhere. She blushed her usual shades of red and pink as various thoughts of her being carried bridal style in Naruto's arms to all sorts of romantic places and restaurants flashed through her mind.

"Sorry Ino-chan no can do. We have to hurry to our class before we are laaaaate!" Having lost his focus and balanced when he turned his head to talk to the Yamanaka he held with a tail, Naruto failed to notice on how fast he was approaching the corridor wall and slammed into it hard. Miraculously even though Naruto had fell to the floor in pain, his tails still remained hanging in the air, leaving both Hinata and Ino safe from a potential disaster. Naruto was about to apologise but Ino was far to irritated to give him the chance and bonked him on the head once again before pulling herself free from the grasp of his tails.

"You did it again you idiot! I swear one of these days you are really going to hurt yourself because of your impatience and I'm not going to lift even a finger to help you." Naruto was too dizzy from the crash and the beating on the head to even begin to think of a response and so just chose to groan in pain. Both he and Ino knew that if something really bad ever did happen to him that she would do everything in her power to help him, but Naruto also knew their were times when she just liked to tell him off.

"Now come on Hinata-san, we don't want to be late just because Naruto-kun here decided to be stupid." Hinata really wanted to stay with her crush and make sure he was alright, as she always felt bad whenever he was hurt and loved to make him feel better. But she really didn't have a say in the matter as Ino just pulled her into classroom regardless on how much she wanted to help Naruto.

Naruto lay dazed on the ground for several minutes before he regained enough balance to stand. To felt quite rejected that his best friend's entered class without him, but he couldn't really say that he didn't deserve it. He did nearly run them into a wall moments ago. Dusting himself off, he approached the door of his class for the next three years and gently pushed it open before walking inside.

Hinata and Ino were busy talking to each other when they noticed they hanyou friend finally enter the classroom, they waved to him to indicate that they were sitting in the back row, but immediately noticed that their friend was already quite distracted.

As Naruto entered the classroom everyone fell silent and turned to him. In truth even though Naruto didn't care what most people thought of him, he was still very interested to know on how his generation felt about him being a kitsune hanyou. If they hated him then it would make he time at the academy quite difficult, but he would love nothing more then to be excepted by maybe one or two more people.

Glancing around at his three year classmates Naruto was actually surprised to recognise a few faces. Namely Shikamaru Naru, Choji Akimichi, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. He knew Shikamaru and Choji because they were best friends with Ino and her father was best friends with their parents.

Shikamaru was a fare bit taller then Naruto and had a more structured build but just as skinny as Naruto was. He chose to wear just simple brown cargo pants and a mesh t-shirt covered by a small grey jacket. His face was quite mature looking for his age but constantly held a bored and sleepy expression. This was manly because on how lazy he was, Naruto had never in his life met a lazier person then Shikamaru Nara. He would literally take every chance he got to just lie down and sleep, and if anything ever required as much effort as lifting a finger he would refuse to do it, saying that it was just to much of a drag to bother. From what Naruto could remember the Nara clan specialised in

Choji was approximately the identical height to Naruto but was easily four times heavier then him. Choji shared Naruto extreme love for ramen but also extended this to a love of all foods. But being able to easily keep up with Naruto's ravenous appetite and sadly not having the same metabolism and genetics meant Choji was a rather obese pre-teen. This obese feature ran true for practically everyone in the Akimichi clan and they had developed a huge variety of jutsu that consumed fat in place of, or often with, their usual chakra. Allowing them to perform really high level jutsu that most people just wouldn't have the chakra capacity for. Naruto could have also sworn that Choji had mentioned something about 'body expansion' jutsu as well. He was basic ninja shorts with a loss fitting green t-shirt embroided with his clans symbol.

Sakura Haruno was Ino's best friend before Sakura broke their friendship because of the crush they both shared on Sasuke Uchiha. Sakura had the most exotic mix of bright hot pink hair and green eyes, something completely unheard of in Konoha. She had a similar build to Ino but chose to wear a more covering red and white training dress, rather then Ino's two piece purple top and miniskirt. Her face was equally beautiful to Ino's but her forehead was just a little bit larger, no doubtably where Ino and derived the insulting name of 'Billboard Brow' from. Naruto originally started to develop a crush on the cute pinkette, but after her backstab she did to Ino, all those developing feelings and his respect for her vanished.

Now Sasuke Uchiha was someone Naruto held great respect for. Like his brother Itachi, Sasuke was a very gifted child when it came to learning and mastering various fighting styles and ninjutsu. Naruto had often spared with him whenever he got help with learning his Kitsune powers from Itachi. Itachi had always seemed to express a great interest with getting Naruto and Sasuke to fight each other, but it wasn't something Naruto minded as he was forming a pretty strong friendship with the younger and older Uchiha brothers. Sasuke, unlike his brother, had dark midnight blue hair and wears a simple navy t-shirt and white shorts. His slightly superior attitude sometimes irritated Naruto, but it was easy to tell that Sasuke considered him a close friend.

Now those were the people that Naruto could identify, among the rest of the class Naruto saw mixed reactions to his presence. Most seemed oddly curious, while a good portion were staring at him the same way Naruto had seen their parents stare. But it was a large portion of odd stares he was receiving from the female populace of the class that had Naruto confused. Cocking his head to the left and twitching his ears to indicate his confusion was the last straw for the girls that were staring at him and Naruto realised why they were acting like this when he heard them all scream the same familiar word.

"KAWAII!" Naruto's eyes widened to enormous size as his ears and tails fell in fright of the oncoming wave of girls. Naruto had been in situations like this before and they always scared the shit out of him.

Turning quickly to dash back out the door, Naruto's initital escape plan was ruined as a random girl grasped him by one of his tails. Flailing about in an attempt to pull himself from her grasp, Naruto failed to evade the onslaught of females that tackled him to the ground. All with the intent of pulling on a tail or scratching his ears.

Hinata felt a flicker of both anger and jealousy build within her at the sight of all those girls touching Naruto, and if wasn't for her shy personality then she would have probably attempted to pull them all off of him. Luckily for her, or unluckily if she knew what was about to happen, Ino had noticed Hinata's distressed expression and intervened in her stead.

"Everyone off the hanyou this instant! Everyone get off of him now!" Hinata nodded a thanks to her friend for her intervention, but that thanks quickly changed when Ino continued with a reason why they should get off of Naruto. "You can't all touch him like that because he's already taken. Hinata Hyuga right here has been his best friend for almost seven years and therefore gets first dibs." Hinata almost passed out on the spot at her friends declaration and tried desperately to hide her bright red face under her collar.

A good quantity of the girls 'petting' Naruto turned to glare daggers at Hinata, already knowing the wall they would have to get through to have such a cute and fluffy boyfriend. Naruto on the other hand heard nothing of what was said as his ears were too busy being ripped off his head. Desperate to free himself from the entanglement of limbs before his claws accidentally hurt someone he reached into his pocket and withdrew a small handful of reeds and a smoke bomb.

The reeds were a necessary ingredient in his only available escape and held them tightly within his hands as he tried to call upon his yokai chakra. Calling upon his demonic energy was not necessarily easy, even after all the years of training with Hinata, Tohru, Neji and occasionally Itachi if he had no missions. It just always seemed like it didn't want to be used, like it evaded his gasp on purpose, it frustrated him to no end. Luckily this slight frustration made it less erratic and far easier to locate and utilize. Willing the chakra to his command Naruto focused on the reeds he held as he announced his technique.

"Kitsune Art: True Form Transformation!" In a sudden blast of frightful energy a cloud of smoke exploded around Naruto and the girls hanging off of him. When it cleared Naruto had disappeared, leaving the females that were attached to him in complete confusion.

Hinata and Ino both were surprised that he had to resort to one of his techniques to escape and cautiously glanced around for their foxy friend. They didn't have to wait long as a few seconds latter they heard a small yip next them quickly followed by a small red fox barely fifty centimetres long with three tails bouncing up onto Hinata's lap. They could practically see Naruto's trademark foxy grin on the little kitsune's face.

"D-Don't you t-think that w-was a b-bit m-much, N-N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked as she nervously patted her now fully fox friend. Naruto just raised his little head and seemed to smirk at his best friend before he curled up in her lap to both wait out the chaos of confused and angry females and to allow Hinata to continue to pet him as it always made him feel so happy.

In truth he had far from mastered the technique but it wasn't really his entire fault. A normal kitsune could easily change between a human form/disguise and their usual fox form with the use of their own power and a focus of nature, hence the reeds. However, Naruto being only half kitsune meant that his true fox form was no where near as easy to achieve or powerful, but he was working on it. His full human form was any form he wished to take and very much resembled the usual Transformation Jutsu they taught at the academy just it wasn't dispelled by a single strike or jutsu because his kitsune transformations weren't mere illusions but real.

Naruto had not only confused the girls tackling him but also most of the class that was watching the amusing scene before them, and were now all arguing and yelling about what the hell happened to Naruto.

This was the scene that Iruka and Mizuki first saw when they first walked into their new class. Glancing at each other in unison with raised eyebrows, they both had no idea what had caused the verbal warfare that was occurring but they both silently agreed that order was necessary.

Both teachers walked to the front desk before demanding silence. It didn't take long for the gathered students to notice their instructors arrival, especially after the loud demand for silence, and returned to various seats around the room. Most of the girls of the class silently fighting each other with their eyes for the two seats either side of Sasuke. The remainder were still looking around for Naruto.

"Right, now that everyone is seated I would like an explanation of what the hell was going on." Iruka demanded at his students-to-be. Various students looked and murmured amongst themselves on who would actually explain, but before anyone had a chance to decide who would talk Ino stood up and explained everything. In her own way of course.

"Well Sensei-san, my friend Naruto Uzumaki was simply walking into class and these girls-" she stated while pointing out various young females in the class. "-all decided to jump on and pile on top of him. He did nothing at all and said nothing, they just all jumped on him. And to get away he resorted to using a jutsu of his." A small but aggressive growl was heard near Ino, indicating to his friend that he was not pleased that she indulged the knowledge of what he did. As he always found it far more entertaining when the recipients of his pranks/tricks had no idea what happened. It was just common nature for a kitsune to think such.

Iruka and Mizuki were a little shocked to hear that they would be teaching 'Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou' and both wondered it there was some way they could transfer him out of their class. However, recalling a certain conversation with the Hokage this morning made them quickly think otherwise.

Flashback

_Sarutobi faced the two chunin instructors with a smile as they entered his office. He had been receiving nothing but good reports from the teacher duo and was very impressed with the quality of genin they had been producing from their classes. Because of these outstanding reports he had decided to allow them both to instruct the latest batch of most promising academy entrants. _

_Three priority classes were to contain only the best of all the academy entrants, most of them coming from powerful clans or families such as Hinata Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha, while others were just particularly gifted individuals such as Naruto Uzumaki. Overall these classes just contained those that would probably make the best ninja and to help them along they were going to get some of the best teachers he could offer. _

_Glancing at the two instructors before him, he nodded his head to each of them as they bowed to him before he spoke the reason for calling them both here. "Iruka-kun, Mizuki-kun. I am pleased that you could see me at such short notice but I have some important things to discuss with both of you." He paused to take a few puffs of his pipe before continuing. "Now, I have been receiving nothing but excellent report on both of you for your teaching abilities. And as recognition for your achievements I have decided to allow both of you to instruct class A-1 until their studies completion in two years time."_

_Both instructors gasped slightly at the proclamation and they were about to object to say that they were both far to underqualified to teach one of the priority classes but were cut off by their hokage continuing, albeit in a slightly threatening tone. "However, there will be one student that you both may object to. If I find out that you have hindered, sabotaged or ignored his studies in any way I will personally see you two removed permanently from the instructor rosters and performing D-Rank mission for six months. Am I clear?"_

_Both instructors were completely shocked at the proclamation and nodded furiously while saying that they would never do such a thing to any student. Sarutobi nodded with a smile at their answer before dismissing them. He had an idea that they may object once they found out who he was actually referring too, but they at least know knew the punishment. _

_Flashback End_

Nodding to each other understanding their predicament Iruka turned and faced their shared class. "Thank you Ino Yamanaka-" Ino was a little shocked that her sensei already knew her name but it didn't show. "- for reporting the incident. Those that were 'assaulting' Naruto Uzumaki will spend their lunch times with me reviewing the current hands-off policies. Now before we begin with the overview of your time at the academy, where is Naruto Uzumaki?" From Ino's statement both instructors had assumed that Naruto had escaped with the Replacement Jutsu. While it was rare that a first day academy student knew the Jutsu it wasn't unheard of and they were interested to see what he had done.

A small bark was heard at the back of the classroom and everyone turned their head to Hinata Hyuga, which was where the noise seemed to have originated from. Hinata blushed brightly at the sudden attention and hid within her collar, but luckily for her Naruto jumped up off her lap and onto the table in front of her.

The whole class stared incredulously at the small red three tailed fox on the bench. Almost everyone jumped from their seats when said fox began to glow slightly and extrude an evil pulse of energy before it begin to change. At first the fox just grew in size, but soon various parts of its body began to change differently. It's muzzle begen to shrink and flatten, it's head been to shape back and curve. It's legs and arms grew out and changed structure while extending more then the rest of it's body. After a few seconds the body structure of a young boy was easily recognisable. Once the body had fully transformed the fur on the boy's body began to recede towards his head, leaving nothing but light coloured skin behind. Within those few seconds the fox had fully transformed leaving Naruto standing there with a big smug grin on his face. And also luckily for himself and those around him he had mastered including his usual clothing in the transformation and therefore was still fully clothed.

"Here I am!" Naruto proclaimed loudly, his tails wagging in emphasis. Upon seeing their foxy classmate perform such a technique caused an eruption of cheers. Many of them shouting out on how cool it was while others practically begging Naruto to teach them how to do the jutsu. Naruto was quite shocked at the attention as he wasn't use to receiving praise from anyone outside his surrogate family and wasn't really sure what to do. Although the praise was sort of lessened by Sasuke's comment of 'Showoff'.

Sasuke often found it amusing to annoy his hanyou friend as his reactions always made it worth the effort. Although Sasuke knew that it was perhaps a little too easy if judging by the vicious growl that he heard was any indication.

Iruka and Mizuki quickly called for silence before they both sat down at their shared teaching desk. "Interesting jutsu Naruto Uzumaki, I can say that it was quite the sight. Was it perhaps one of your Kitsune Jutsu that I have been hearing that you have been learning?" Iruka asked with genuine interest. He had taught a fair amount of students before but he had never taught a hanyou before and was interest to know what the young boy already knew. And judging by what he felt Naruto also had access to his Yokai Chakra.

Naruto was instantly distracted from his thoughts of what prank he should do to Sasuke for the showoff comment by Iruka's question, and was rather excited to answer. "Yer it was. Although its still not perfect yet, its hard to learn and perform but I'll be able to do it one day you just watch sensei." He declared proudly before jumping off the table into his seat between his two best friends. Hinata was happy that the class she was in seemed to already start to accept her best friend, although she wasn't too happy about the amount of girls still staring at her crush like he was lickable candy. Ino on the other hand was agreeing with Sasuke's comment.

Once the class had settled down enough Iruka and Mizuki decided to introduce themselves. "Well everyone, for the next two years we shall be your sensei until you graduate from the academy and are divided up into your genin teams. My name-" He said while pointing to himself "-is Iruka Umino."

"And my name is Mizuki Uraki." Mizuki said learning forward slightly in his desk.

The students all observed their new teachers carefully, committing their appearance to memory.

Iruka was a rather handsome looking man with well defined male features. He was about 5 foot 8 and had brown eyes and rather long brown hair that was pulled back into a spiky ponytail. He features were unmarred bar a single straight scar that ran through the middle of this nose, ending just below each eye. He wore a standard dark navy long sleeve shirt and trousers with his green chunin vest over the top. He wore his leaf headband around his head like normal. Mizuki was of a similar appearance but his face had a slightly more feminine look to it and instead of brown he had silver hair that flowed down to his shoulders. He wore the same attire as Iruka but chose to have his chunin jacket unzipped instead of closed and his headband was worn more as a bandana.

"Now today we shall begin with a class introduction which will then be followed by an overview of everything that is to be taught to you during your academy training and everything that is expected of you as a future ninja of Konoha." Iruka and Mizuki smiled as they noticed that they had the classes undivided attention. Although judging by their past classes they both wondered on how long this attention would hold.

The moons beautiful light provided the only light source and illumination within the Uchiha compound. Most house lights had been turned off for the night, and all main torches that had once lit the compound had been extinguished by a dark figure flashing through the many alleys and side streets between the main house. The moonlight only showing his dark siloette when he perched silently atop a power post, the only clearly visible aspect that gave any indication to the figure's identity was his glowing red Sharingan eyes.

Itachi breathed in deep as he glanced quickly his vast family home. The sun had only set an hour ago, and there were still a few Uchiha wondering around wishing each other goodnight. He would have preferred to wait until they were all asleep but he had already wasted enough time reducing the amount of light in the district and needed to proceed with the annihilation of his family as soon as possible.

Waiting for the three walking Uchiha pass his current position, Itachi flashed through the shadows created by the moon's light and moved behind his targets. His heart bleed with guilt and pain as he quickly reached within his weapon pouch and withdrew a single shuriken. Lauching the small throwing star, Itachi's Sharingan eyes tracked its movements in slow motion as it flew towards it's target and his mind remembering these images forever as it buried deep with the Uchiha's throat.

The Uchiha male was barely able to comprehend the pain he felt in his throat as his life quickly him, leaving his eyes dulled as blood pored from his wound and he fell to the floor. The two Uchiha near him hear the thump and quickly turn to face whatever had caused the odd sound. They both went to scream out their fallen cousin's name, but found nothing escaped there mouths but blood. Itachi had appeared behind them the moment they had turned, and with one swift movement slit each of their throats with his katana.

Itachi watched motionless as two more of his family fell lifeless to the ground. Their blood pooling beneath his feet, staining the ground forever as a reminder of his betrayal of his family. Tears threatened to fall from his dulled eyes as he walked past there fallen bodies but he forced them back as he tried desperately to clear his mind and heart of all emotions. He needed to keep as detached from this night as possible but at the same time he wanted to feel the pain, he wanted to be destroyed and consumed by the guilt that he knew was growing with his heart. He didn't want to live a life not regretting his actions, even if they were the right thing to do.

Itachi reach up to his young face and removed the 'Weasel' Anbu mask he was wearing, it originally was to help hide his identity, but he didn't want it. He didn't want this to just seem like another anonymous mission carried out by a code worded emotionless killer. When he struck his family down, he wanted to feel even bit of pain, he wanted to know and feel that it was he who committed this murder. It may have seemed very strange to anyone else, but to Itachi it made perfect sense. Because in the words of his young hanyou friend, Itachi didn't want to be a monster.

Glancing at the fallen three Uchiha, Itachi recognised them as cousins that he had trained with at one stage or another. Distant cousins, but cousins none the less, they were his family and he had murdered them. Ended their lives far before their time, and for what? To protect his village that he was loyal to about his own family? But which was worse, his family who were loyal to their family and were planning to attempt to overtake Konoha? Or him who was loyal to the village about his family and was wiping them out to keep his village safe?

He had tried to justify his actions to himself so many times, but no matter what reason he came up with. The guilt that he was the one that betrayed his family would always crushed that reason. The only thing that he could hold onto that somewhat assured himself that what he was doing was the right thing, was that the Uchiha were willing to murder people and Konoha's Hokage for more power and political control, whereas he was killing his family to protect Konoha.

Tearing his eyes away from the lifeless faces of his cousins, Itachi quickly hid within the shadows when he noticed a familiar chakra nearby. Bowing his head slightly in regret Itachi formed three quick handsigns while silently announcing his jutsu to himself. A small puff of smoke appeared next to Itachi and once it dissipated a perfect copy of himself stood tall. The jutsu that Itachi had used was known as the Shadow Clone Jutsu, basically it produced a complete copy of the user, exact in every way. The clone could operate identically to the original and could be very useful as both a distraction and as addition man power in battles. The only downsides to such a useful jutsu is that once struck the clone would dissipate into nothingness and takes an equal portion of the originals chakra and therefore was quite a dangerous jutsu as it could leave the user with far to little chakra. For example if the user made two shadow clones then both they and the original would be left with only a third of their chakra.

The clone would also think identically to its original and therefore could already know what its use was, as was in Itachi's case. The clone of Itachi nodded to it's creator before stepping back out of the shadows and dashing for the sensed chakra.

Makura Uchiha, Itachi's uncle, was one of the most advanced in all of the Uchiha clan at sensing chakra, and upon detecting Itachi's chakra spike slightly moments ago had wondered out of his home to see if something was wrong with his young nephew. As soon as he stepped outside he quickly activated his Sharingan eyes. The first thing he noticed that set off his shinobi senses was that almost all the torches that usually lit the roads within the Uchiha Compound were extinguished.

Walking forward in a defensive stance Makura relaxed when he sensed Itachi's chakra nearby and visibly breathed in relief and deactivated his Sharingan when he saw said person emerge from the shadows.

"Geez Itachi- , you shouldn't go using jutsu at this time of night. You frighten old men like me when you do." Makura smiled brightly while taking his time observing what his nephew was wearing, Itachi just nodded agreement. Itachi had always been a jumpy person himself as he barely ever let his guard down and so could understand where his uncle was coming from. "So judging by your attire you have just come back from some daring mission? With your skills I'm sure you completed it without so much as breaking a sweat, you really are the pride of the Uchiha clan you know Itachi. You make your uncle very proud."

Itachi would have burst out in tears if it wasn't for his superior control over his emotions when he was performing missions. He had hoped to avoid any conversations with his family while he carried out his massacre, but it seemed luck was against him tonight as not only did he already begin conversation with immediate family but he was also being praise. Receiving praise from your family is usually something children and teens love more then anything else, but for Itachi on this night, it was just like driving a deep dagger into his already breaking heart. Here he was being praise and honoured by his uncle, when in a few short seconds he would be ending that very person's life.

Steeling himself for the pain soon to come, Itachi glanced up at his uncle with deary emotionless eyes. Which perfectly betrayed his current inner conflict. "I am afraid you are incorrect Uncle. I am still on a mission."

"Oh, well if that's the case my boy I better leave you to it. I don't want to get in your way or anything." Makura bowed slightly showing his respect for the younger Uchiha before turning around to head back inside his home. However, he froze when he detected Itachi's chakra signature coming from directly above him. He wasn't even giving a chance to imagine why he could sense two Itachi's before his life was taken from him as a sword pierced through his chest. In his last few seconds alive he was able to turn his head to glance at his attacker. His eyes widened in shock as he saw the calm and emotionless face of Itachi. In shock from the pain in his chest and from what he was seeing Makura refused to believe what he was seeing as tears quickly fell from his eyes. The last thing he would ever say tore at Itachi's already guilt ridden heart. "W-W-Why?…"

Itachi's clone jumped down from the roof and landed silently next to his original. Itachi had used his clone to distract his Uncle, while he thrust his ANBU Katana through his Uncle's heart. "I am sorry Uncle… But this had to be." Itachi spoke softly, almost icily as he desperately tried to force down the overpowering pain that crushed his heart. He had just murdered his Uncle, and worse, his Uncle stayed alive long enough to know who had taken his life, Itachi knew that his Uncle's soul would now never find a peaceful rest.

Quickly removing his blade from his Uncle's chest, he watched in silence as the lifeless body fell harshly to the ground, blood poring from his pierced heart. Itachi almost dropped his blade when he was hit by an onrush of memories. Memories of all the times he had spent with his Uncle, the fun times like when he was being pushed on a swing when he was a little boy, the sad times when he would cry into his Uncle's shoulder everytime he failed a new Jutsu, the happy times when he would be taken outside of Konoha to be trained in the shinobi arts by both his uncle and father.

All these memories cut his heart and soul deeper then any blade would ever manage, his uncle had given him some of his most happy and rewarding memories in his young life, and what did Itachi give him in return? He had betrayed his family and had taken Makura's life away.

The pain and guilt was so much that Itachi staggered slightly as he clutched his aching chest. He was tempted to utilize his ANBU training and once again reject the emotions from his mind. But he just couldn't bring himself to do it, no matter how much it hurt, no matter how much he wished it could have been someone else murdering his clan, Itachi needed to feel the pain to assure himself that he wasn't just some mindless killer.

Collecting himself and clearing his thoughts slightly, Itachi sheathed his precious blade before returning to his mission, leaving the clone he had created to perform some of the task. He hadn't even taken four steps towards the shadows before he detected a very familiar chakra signature approaching at tremendous speed. "No! What is he doing here? This could ruin everything! I need to find him quickly and stop him, I can't let him see what takes place."

Itachi spun around to run towards the chakra he felt, however, he displayed real shock as the first thing he saw upon turning was his new target glaring at him dangerously while standing tall in front of his fallen cousins. Itachi had underestimated his new target already, something that he should have learnt long ago and cursed himself for his foolishness.

"Itachi! What the hell do you think you are doing!"

Just outside Konoha Academy

Naruto was pissed, livid even as he contemplated what evil and torturous prank he could perform on the latest entry into his 'Bastard's I Have To Prank' list. Naruto had been off to such a wonderful start that morning, full of energy and eagerness to learn. His two sensei's seemed to disregard him a fair bit throughout the morning but they did include him in all of the discussions and the introductions, and not once did he see any looks of hatred from them, only looks of confusion. Almost like they weren't really sure what to think of him yet. But if they were already ready to give him a chance then that was more then enough to get in his good books.

He had also been very excited when they explained the topics that they would be instructing him and everyone else in for the next two years. Mind you it was hard for him to concentrate while sitting in the one seat for the entire morning, but with a little prodding curtesy of Ino's temper and Hinata's gentle reminders he was able to stay on target… most of the time.

The exciting but still slightly boring overview was not what had put him in a foul mood though. It was what happen just after the first lunch bell had rung that was the thing that pissed him off. He had been a little late out of class as Iruka and Mizuki had asked to speak to him about his transformation earlier in the class, and so he was in a hurry to meet up with Ino and Hinata for lunchtime. And being the hyperactive hanyou he is, Naruto had been using every once of speed he possessed to bolt on all fours down the corridors of the academy. And as usual his excitement and impatience was his downfall, because as he quickly skidded around a tight corner he had collided directly with the academy principle.

Naruto's first reaction at the time was to growl in annoyance as he shook his head to clear his dizziness. However, that growling quickly stopped and changed into a small whimper when he noticed the man he had run into. Before Naruto even had a chance to explain and apologise the man started yelling all sorts of abuse at him before ordering Naruto to his office and handing him multiple detention papers, stating that Naruto was not to leave the room until he had come back and permitted him to leave. That was annoying enough for the innocent hanyou as it was, but what really pissed him off was that was six freakin' hours ago!

"Damn that bastard! I'm gonna make a prank so evil and malicious that he'll be left crying for his mummy for a week!" Naruto mind was a little too crowded with anger to properly focus on creating a prank and he really knew that he had to control his emotions better so a good portion of his brainpower was being spent controlling himself. However, controlling both his emotions and controlling his growing need to break the shit out of the principle's office was not easy so Naruto finally decided to just screw it and escape the office by force.

Walking over to the nearest window Naruto growled viciously when he saw night had already fallen, the principle really had left him in the office on purpose. His tails thrashed around as he quickly pondered on how bad he really could make his prank without it actually be considered assault. Naruto never liked hurting people, but it was a natural trait of any Kitsune to cause all sorts of mischief for anyone who pissed them off or caused them harm.

Pulling back the blinds, Naruto brandished his claws before striking the glass window with four quick slashes. For a few moments nothing happened, but when Naruto blew gently against the window it fell to pieces in diamond shaped shards. He would probably replace the window latter on so that it wouldn't look like he had broken it to escape, but right now he was far to angry to think of such things.

Leaping through the window, Naruto landed silently amongst the academy grass before speeding off on all fours towards his house. Glancing at the starry night sky as he sped from shadow to shadow, Naruto contemplated if he should quickly visit his best friend as he knew she would be very worried about him considering he virtually vanished before lunch.

He wasn't sure why Hinata always worried about him but it certainly wasn't something he didn't like. In truth her constant worrying, concern and reminders of what he should be doing was just a few of the many things he really liked receiving from his best friend. Having been starved of any sort of normal attention before he met her was probably the reason he most loved being around her. Ino, Sasuke and Itachi were also very good friends but he always felt that he had a special bond with Hinata as she was and always will be his best of friends.

A loud and disgruntled rumble originating from his stomach quickly changed his mind on visiting Hinata however, as he suddenly changed directly and leapt off towards his favourite ramen stand. The whole way there he was practically praying to the 'Ramen Gods' that it was still open at this time of night as he still had no idea what time it was.

Despite the villagers no longer publicly physically abusing him, Naruto was still very cautious wherever he went and still regularly scanned his surroundings for any trace of malicious sounds with his ears and any scents that he could pick up often acted as his guide throughout Konoha rather then his eyes. Despite his incredible night vision this navigation with scents especially applied at nighttimes as he eyes could still be tricked by shadows, whereas his nose could only be tricked by perfumes and the like.

It was during these scans that Naruto picked up on a particular smell, one that could easily be identified. _'Hmm… human fluid… salty… and a small metallic edge? Wait! That's blood!'_ Quickly halting his running, Naruto arched up and concentrated on that particular scent, years of fine tuning his abilities allowed Naruto to follow like a visible trail certain scents. He knew this was a common ability of practically all animals but being a kitsune meant his was especially sharp.

His eyes widened in shock when he calculated the direction of the scent, it was coming from the Uchiha Compound. Worried for Sasuke and Itachi's safety Naruto quickly changed directions and ran in the direction of the scent of blood. A million thoughts of worry flooded his mind as he considered every possible bad thing that could have happen within the Uchiha Compound. And when his nose were able to separate the scent of blood to three different people, Naruto really began to panic.

'_What if they are being attacked! What if someone is trying to take Sasuke or Itachi like they tried to take Hinata-chan all those years ago! I have to help them!' _Not even once thinking about his own safety, Naruto reached deep inside himself and forced his darker chakra to obey his will. Luckily, due to his worried state, the Yokai Chakra was easy to grab and Naruto used the powerful demonic energy to utilize one of his most recent illusions.

"Kitsune Illusion: Chakra Body Emulation!" Chakra pulsed from his body suddenly and quickly flew off in a completely different direction to where he was going. It had no physically form could not be detected by the human eye, the precise reason Naruto liked using it. Basically the jutsu created an illusion of the user's chakra signature and fired it off in a random direction. He would use this Kitsune Illusion while being chased by villagers or various ninja for pulling a rather extravagant prank to confuse them, because if they tried to find him by sensing his chakra, they would follow the illusion instead of him. This was because the illusion constantly extruded his chakra and could be felt far easier then the chakra stored within his own body. The thing that made this jutsu really stand out though was that all the chakra it was extruding was not real chakra but like its name suggests, merely an illusion of his chakra and therefore required very little energy to use.

However, in this particular instance Naruto would use it to distract whoever was spilling Uchiha blood and sneak up upon them.

Uchiha Compound

Itachi stared at person before him with emotionless eyes, showing that he really didn't care that he was before him. However, those eyes hide the conflicting emotions within his mind. Being an Anbu Captain Itachi knew that anyone who discovered a mission was a threat to the missions security and therefore must be eliminated. Itachi didn't want to admit it, he didn't want to even process a single thought on the action he now had to perform. And for a split second his eyes shifted to display the pain it caused him knowing he would be the one to end his friend's life. He would be the one, who would have to kill Naruto.

Naruto stood defensively in front of the fallen Uchihas, growling viciously as his tails thrashed violently behind him. He couldn't believe what he saw, he _wouldn't _believe what he saw. "Who are you? Your not Itachi! Itachi wouldn't do what I just saw you do! YOU JUST KILLED ITACHI'S UNCLE!'

Itachi was worried, not about facing Naruto, but more the attention such a fight would bring. Naruto's Yokai chakra could be felt miles away and if his rage and anger built too much then Itachi was running the risk of letting Naruto alert every shinobi in Konoha that something was happening within the Uchiha Compound. Filtering such thoughts from his mind, Itachi returned to his visage of impassiveness while glaring at his kitsune target.

"Naruto-kun, you know this is me. Your sense of smell cannot betray you and my scent cannot be emulated by a mere Transformation Jutsu. This is me, and what makes it worse, you know it." Itachi's usually stoic and emotionless sounding voice was oddly harsh, and seemed to have an icy cold shrill to it. Something that caused Naruto to back away slightly in fright.

That fright was soon forgotten when Naruto stepped back and bumped into the cooling corpses of the two fallen Uchiha. Naruto just couldn't believe that Itachi could have done something like that, it just seemed completely unlike him. To Naruto, family was the most precious thing in the whole world and he valued everyone that he considered family beyond anything else. Itachi was like Naruto's older brother, an older brother that would show you and teach you all the things that your parents told you no for. An older brother to run and cry to when you were upset and needed to talk. An older brother that would be the one to beat up all the other kids that picked on you. Naruto truly loved Itachi as a brother, and having seen Itachi run his own uncle through like that, it just broke Naruto's heart and mind.

Conflicting feelings of rage, confusion and hurt plague his mind and clouded his thoughts. And from these feelings he could feel his dark chakra stir deep within him, but he didn't care. He was just to hurt and shocked from what he had witnessed to even think about his powers.

"Why?... Why would you do this?... Itachi why?..." Tears began to fall from the little hanyou's face as his stance weakened from the pain. He didn't want to believe it, no matter how much this figure seemed like Itachi it just could be. Itachi just stood their before him, emotionless as always. Almost like the death he just caused meant nothing to him.

Itachi turned to the breaking hanyou before him, he hadn't counted on Naruto intervening, but figured he could say and do the same things that he had planned for Sasuke. It would work on them both. "Why? That is easy Naruto-kun. I killed them, for no other reason then to test the limit… of my new abilities." Upon finishing his sentence, Itachi forced chakra to his eyes, changing there form and displaying his newly obtained power.

Naruto gasped as he observed Itachi's three tomoe in his Sharingan eyes, merge at the pupil then extend outwards. Forming a three bladed pin-wheel. He was far from versed in charka detection, and even he could feel the sheer magnitude of power behind those new eyes. "This. This is why Naruto-kun. I needed to test my new powers, and what better practice can I get then my own family." Itachi could see the pain he was causing the young hanyou, it hurt him, but he needed to continue. He couldn't have anyone know the truth.

"I once said to you that life held no challenge for me. That I hadn't been able to find anything to give my life meaning. Well this is my last attempt, this is what I must do, this is everything I have ever wanted. My family is the most powerful clan in the entire of Konoha, what better challenge could I have then attempting to defeat every member of my clan!" Itachi was going to continue, but his eyes were tracking the movement of his chakra and he was starting to detect hints of Naruto's Yokai chakra emerging and decided it was probably best to end it as soon as possible.

Naruto couldn't in his entire lifetime fathom how Itachi could come to such a murdurous challenge for himself. The person who was like his big brother was committing a terrible crime, and for what? To test his skills? Naruto didn't know why Itachi was like this, it hurt him more then anything since his mothers death. But he did know one thing: "… monster… you… you killed them and you don't even care one bit! YOUR NOTHING BUT A MONSTER!"

Without warning Naruto lunged at Itachi, his claws outstretched as he desperately slashed at Itachi in a desperate attempt to silence him. He didn't want Itachi to say any more hurtful and soul crushing things.

Itachi almost smirked as he watched Naruto move in slow motion before his eyes. The tears within the young hanyou's eyes were obviously clouding his vision as Itachi need only to slightly shift his body to dodge the random barrage of slashes. He didn't even bother to his hands to block, he just dodged.

Naruto, overcome by pain and clouded with rage that his target refused to even put even the slightest of effort in fighting him, ducked down and attempted to grab hold of Itachi with his three tails. Itachi's Sharingan just predicted this movement however, and he just jumped back slightly to avoid being entangled, all the while still not lifting his hands in defence.

Naruto yelled in frustration as he watched Itachi continue to dodge his strikes, it infuriated him beyond comprehension that Itachi didn't even consider him a threat. And so, growling viciously Naruto lunged again for Itachi, this time jumping high to strike his face.

Again Itachi just waited until the last possible second before shifted his head to the side, allowing the clawed strike to pass by him. However, Naruto lunge left him heading straight for Itachi's outstretched hand. Knowing that he was going to be caught and that he couldn't jump in mid air, Naruto swung his leftmost tail around him, knocking the hand away. Immediately spying an opening when he noticed Itachi's slightly surprised look at the tail swipe, Naruto followed through with a slash from his left hand.

Itachi wasn't considered the genius prodigy of the Uchiha clan for nothing; he had planned for Naruto to utilize his tails and the attack with his other hand. With both of Naruto's hand's in the air, it meant that his chest and stomach was unguarded. Something that Itachi had counted on. Instead of sidestepping this swipe, Itachi caught Naruto's hand by the wrist before delivering a painful knee to his unguarded stomach. Knowing it was foolish to allow an opponent to stay close to you, he finished it off by tossing slightly into the air and slammed a chakra enhanced fist into the hanyou's chest.

Naruto gave an animalistic yelp of pain as he flew back a few meters and skidded painfully across the stone pavers. When he skidded into the corpse of Itachi's fallen cousin, a part of his mind snapped and his quickly flung himself upright. Reaching into his dark chakra Naruto easily willed it to his hands before performing the necessary handsigns to ignite his jutsu. Powerful blue flames erupted from his palms and danced majestically as Naruto shaped the incandescent flames for his desired technique.

"Kitsune Art: Spiralling Fox Fire!" He thrust both of his palms out and marvelled as the two blue fires exploded outwards, spinning and spiralling around one another towards their intended target. Itachi's Sharingan had detected the chakra manipulation and knew Naruto was preparing one of his fox fire jutsu. Originally he hadn't wanted Naruto to get this involved in fighting him, but Itachi relished the idea of actually testing his new Sharingan techniques against Naruto's Kitsune techniques.

Again forcing chakra to his eyes although this time mainly focusing on his right eye, Itachi strained under the pressure it caused as one of his latest and powerful techniques took shape. "Amaterasu!" Sickly black flames forced themselves from the depths of his right eye, similarly to Naruto's fox fire these flames quickly erupted forward and then like an encroaching pitch black shadow, engulfed everything in there paths.

Upon contact a fairly loud explosion was heard throughout the Uchiha district, something Itachi was quite irritated at. The two different fires seemed to fight each other in mid air in a dazzeling display of interlaced blues and blacks as they danced before their creators. And even thought they were both quick direct jutsu and not very widespread, the heat was so intense that Itachi noted that they started to melt the ground and stone houses around them.

Naruto, shielding his eyes with his tails from the intense heat failed to see the outcome of the two combating flames. Originally Naruto's Fox Fire seemed to easily overpower Itachi's Amaterasu flames due to its larger size, but the black flames mimicking the shadows they looked so alike, slowly began to burrow themselves and extinguish the blue. Slowly building up in heat as they assumingly absorbed Naruto's flames, the Amaterasu spread around and within the majestic blue flames until almost fully engulfing them.

Itachi was able to remotely control the black flames, and continually fuelled their power with his own chakra. While Naruto's Fox Fire slowly succumbed to the superior flames he was helpless to defend himself as the vicious dark flames erupted forward, having completely extinguished their inferior opponent they now arched toward their intended target.

Within moments the flames engulfed Naruto, burning away at his fur and skin. Naruto screamed out as incalculable pain surged through his body. He could feel the flames burning him and melting his flesh, and no matter how much he screamed, no sounds were heard. The flames abruptly vanished, leaving Naruto's fairly burnt body to fall to the ground. Itachi could not only fuel the flames, but with the same eye that created them he could also extinguish them with.

Itachi watched Naruto shakily lick his burnt wounds as emotionlessly as he could muster. He felt sick in the gut to just stand and watch a child nurse himself, especially considering the degree that he had burnt the little hanyou. All the fur on the three tails that had been completely signed off, and the majority of the left side of his body and face had severe first degree burns.

If the sight wasn't horrible enough, Itachi could smell the damage he had caused, the scent of burnt flesh was so overpowering that Itachi could barely keep himself from vomiting. He was so distracted in keeping his gut under control and the guilt he felt with each pain filled whimper he heard from Naruto, that he almost missed the two Uchiha members that ran out of their homes upon hearing the sound of the explosion caused by the two fire jutsus.

"Itachi-sama! What happ-" That was all the twin Uchiha brothers were able to say before they were silenced as kunais pierced through their throats. It pained Itachi once again to see another two family members fall dead by his hand. But it also pissed him off, for all of his father's rants on how wonderful and almighty the clan was, they certainly didn't have very impressive skills to be taken out so easily.

Naruto, despite the pain and his blurry vision had seen Itachi's two latest victims and ceased his medicinal licking of his wounds. Having once again seen how easily Itachi was murdering his family, caused Naruto to immediately leap up and grow viciously again at Itachi.

Itachi didn't even have a second to react before he felt Naruto's Yokai chakra flood the immediate area, its overpowering bloodlust and rage pressuring his lunges making it hard to breath. Turning back to face the now enraged hanyou, Itachi quickly took notice that he was once again standing and his appearance was quickly becoming even more feral then usual. The two things that really took his attention were his rapidly healing burns and his blood red slitted eyes.

"**You're a monster Itachi! You don't deserve a family!**" Without any warning he dashed forward, and virtually appeared in front of Itachi, the overpowering bloodlust in his mind and body urging him to end Itachi's life and destroy everything around him.

Itachi had seen Naruto's movement and reacted accordingly by pumping more chakra into his eyes, although this time mainly into his left. Closing his eyes as he consitracted on preparing another one of his latest techniques, Itachi waited until second before Naruto struck him to open his eyes.

"Tsukuyomi!" Three seconds past in real life, and in that time Naruto experienced more pain and horror then in his worst memories. Itachi opened his eyes and observed the result of his latest jutsu. The environment around him was one of his favourite locations in outlying forests of Konoha, it provided him with a place to hide away from the pressures of his clan and ninja career. But now it provided the location of his three day torture.

Basically Tsukuyomi was the master of all Genjutsu techniques, a particular Genjutsu that manipulates time and space. It was capable of trapping its target in a whole world of the users creation, they are trapped there for three days in the Genjutsu, but only three seconds in real life. During this time those that are trapped are at the users disposal, completely under control of the Genjutsu. Any physical damage that happens to the within Tsukuyomi is all an illusion and doesn't actually happen to them for real, however, the emotional pain of everything they see and feel still remains and is what the user focuses on: emotionally breaking their trapped prey.

Naruto's mind was racing as he quickly glanced at his surroundings, the first thing he noticed was that his Yokai chakra had left him, nor could he feels its malice pressuring and influencing his thoughts. Calmness quickly returned to his once raging mind, but that calmness was suddenly replaced with nervousness as he analysed his current situation. He was chained to the ground, shackled by his hands, feet and tails. No amount of force seemed to budge them nor did they break under his powerful strength. The world around him seemed strange, warped even, he sort of recognised the forest setting but everything was in black and white. The only object of colour was an eerie red moon that seemed to be able to be seen from every angle.

"W-What is this place? Why am I chained? And why won't they bloody break!" He yelled to no one as he continued to struggle against his binds. He didn't know why, but he was really frightened of being chained, he wasn't sure if it was a Kitsune instinct or it he genuinely was afraid. But either way, it was really starting to mess with his nerves.

"You are within Tsukuyomi, a world of my creation and complete control. For the next 72 hours you will be tortured and suffer pain beyond your worst nightmares. This may all be an illusion, but the pain you feel will be quite life like. As if to prove his point, a copy of Itachi appeared directly in front Naruto, and with one quick motion ran his Anbu blade through the hanyou's chest.

Naruto screamed in pain as he felt the blade pierce his skin. He had once felt this feeling on the day before Hinata had found him, it was one of the most physically painful experiences he had ever survived. And he was feeling it all once again. If only he knew that this punishment would continue for hours on end.

Hours, days, month. Naruto had no idea how long he had been within Tsukuyomi, about the only thing he did have an idea of was the indescribable pain that constantly pulsed throughout his body. He not only was forced to be physically punished but Itachi also created various scenarios of his mother death. Often pretending to be the one who killed her just to further torture the poor hanyou. Something that Naruto could never had imagined a once kind brotherly figure would ever do to him.

And if Naruto could call upon his Yokai chakra he swore on the spot that he would let his demonic nature take control so he could personally remove Itachi from existence. The love he once held for the teenage Uchiha, was far from crushed, almost to the point where it hurt Naruto more to even look at him then the blades being thrust through his chest.

"Why Itachi?" He asked between laboured breaths caused by the pain. "I still don't understand why? You still haven't told me why everyone of your family must die to test your abilities!" he paused just momentarily to force back his tears as another blade forced its way through his gut. If Naruto didn't think this place was an illusion to begin with, he did now thanks to the number of times he should definitely been killed. What purpose would it have to kill everyone!"

Itachi for the first time since he trapped Naruto within his Tsukuyomi visibly flinched for some reason at one of the things he had said. Something Naruto caught. "Why? Come on Itachi! Tell me why everyone has to die! Why does EVERYONE that you love have to die? Surely not everyone in your family deserves death!"

Itachi had had enough, he was already bleeding emotionally from the guilt of murdering his own family and the inhuman torture he was forcing upon Naruto. He just wished it all would end. But Naruto had made a point that Itachi had completely overlooked, something that gave him some sort of hope at creating a better outcome of his massacre.

Did everyone need to die?

Various scenarios played out within his mind as he desperately thought on the outcome of such a change. Their were many that were with the clan's motive of usurpering Konoha, but their were also those that had no idea of their clans intentions. Naruto, even though he didn't know the truth, had a valid point. Did they really all need to die?

Completely floored by this new revelation Itachi allowed Naruto to witness tears fall from his slightly smiling face, before ending his torturous Genjutsu. But not before speaking one last sentence as Naruto's big brother figure. "I am sorry for the pain I caused you Naruto-kun… hopefully… hopefully I can think of something better for all of us now. Thank you."

Itachi opened his eyes, once again viewing the real world and not his illusion. He watched as Naruto fell unconscious in mid-air from the torment he had forced upon the hanyou within those three seconds. Catching him with an impressive display of speed, Itachi quickly created a clone to carry the young hanyou to the Konoha Hospital. Handing Naruto over to his clone, Itachi readied his katana as he detected multiple Uchiha chakra signatures approaching, obviously having felt Naruto's pulse of demonic chakra.

"It is just an idea, but maybe I can change my clan for the better. Change them into something that is deserving of the respect and prestige the village showers us with. And maybe… just maybe I won't have to force my little brother to carry the mantel of our clan. Such a simply thought… and yet it may have a big outcome." Itachi quickly wiped the tears away from his eyes as he once again steeled his heart for the deaths he would still cause tonight. But hopefully his heart may one day find peace in the eventually knowledge that his clan may survive and thrive under new ideals. Ideals that he would set upon them.


	18. Chapter 17: End or Beginning of the Uchi

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Right here is the next chapter of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel.

I have been getting a few people asking why I am taking so long to update and that I have been breaking my promise of an update a week... Well um... thats not what I said at all. There may have been some confusion but I said that I would release a chapter a week while I still have chapters that I had already completed left. And as soon as I ran out I would be updating a chapter the saturday of its completion as they are written. I hope this clears up any confusion.

Anyway, on to the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot or characters of this fanfiction.

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Chapter 17: End or Beginning of the Uchiha Clan

Hinata woke up in a cold sweat for at least the thousandth time, her dreary and tired eyes only just registering the morning sunlight filtering into her room through her light silk curtains. Deciding to not even bother to try and sleep once again she turned over and sat up, wiping her face of the half dried tears. She was worried. She couldn't remember the last time she was this worried.

Naruto had gone missing after the first period of the academy and hadn't been seen since. At first she thought that he just got distracted by something as was usually the case because of his incalculable curiosity. But when she returned to class after lunch and he still hadn't shown up she had starting to lose her calm. She had questioned Iruka and Mizuki about Naruto's whereabouts but they replied that the last they had seen of him was when they were talking to him about his Kitsune techniques.

By the time the academy day was over Hinata was sweating bullets. Most would think it odd to worry so much, but not if they knew Naruto and Hinata. Hinata was upset because without Naruto around, her self-confidence would always falter as she had no-one around her who was as uplifting as he was. Another reason Hinata was upset was that she always cherished her time with Naruto and every second without him always made her feel miserable, almost like he was the only thing that brought any joy to her life.

Every time she was with him, her heart was always racing and her breaths always quick, at his every joke she would laugh, at his every word she would blush, at his every smile she would melt, at his every touch she would shiver from his caring warmth. She had never known anyone to bring her more happiness and laughter and joy to her life then Naruto had. Being held by him in anyway provided her with a feeling of security and belonging, she knew that she was his and prayed that he would some day return her feelings. This was an obvious reason as it was an aspect of just about every pre-teen/teen crush. But the biggest reason she was so worried was because she was concerned for his safety.

Even after all these years the villagers will held a great deal of hate for her crush, and sometimes that hate would build up to the point where they were personally try to sabotage his life by attempting to destroy his home, get in his way, generally being nasty and spiteful, refusing him service, or in the more severe cases they would try to cause him physical harm.

Notably the last one had diminished significantly with the increase of Anbu surveillance that Naruto had, but it still occurred and that's what Hinata feared. It hurt her little heart more then anything else to imagine Naruto being beaten like he use to be, she never liked to see anyone injured and that applied especially if that person was Naruto. Unless of course if it was an injury that he had done via training or being silly as she always got to take care of his wounds in those situations, something she wouldn't trade for the world.

Remembering a few times when she had been the one to bandage his injuries brought a small blush to her face, the happy thought briefly allowing her to forget her worry as she buried her face into her pillow. Squealing in delight at the memories. Her happy thoughts were interrupted when her cousin knocked politely on her door.

"Hinata-sama, it is time to get up for the Academy. Also I have news on Naruto's disappearance." Neji smirked playfully as he heard his cousin scrambling around in a hurry to get dressed. Within a few seconds her door was flung open, revealing a very nervous, worried and yet hopeful Hinata standing in front of him dressed rather roughly, almost like she hadn't put anything on right because of the hurry she was in.

"W-Well… What i-is it Neji-niisan? W-What h-happened to Naruto-kun?" Neji could see the need for word of her crush's safety, and Neji almost felt bad in doing what he was about to do, the key word being _almost_.

"He… He… He's dead Hinata-sama." His gaze falling to the floor as his voice tried to emulate someone who was emotionally crushed and was about to break into tears. An easy task given his usually plain sounding voice. Although, Neji originally thought that she would be really shocked, then quickly realise he was joking, then playfully smack him on the arm like she always did when he picked on her. If he had realised the impact it had on her, he probably would have thought twice about it.

Hinata froze at her cousins words. For a few split seconds her mind was unable to process the thought. But when it hit her, it hit her hard. Her mind stopped as she pulled her hands towards her chest, her body shaking violently as her eyes refused to move their gaze away from Neji, despite looking at him though, she was more looking through him as various images of what could have caused Naruto to die entered her breaking mind. Tears began freely flowing from her eyes and her breathing quickened to match her racing, breaking little heart. _'No… No it can't be true. Nii-san is lying… he has to be… NARUTO!'_. She had never felt anything like it, it felt like a blade was slicing her heart into little pieces and squeezing them with unimaginable pressure. Holding her chest as pain surged through her body and mind, she didn't even register that she had collapsed on the floor and was now crying her heart out repeating her crush's name over and over again.

What would she do without him? Not only was he her first and best friend, but he was the person closest too her after her family, she loved him with all her now breaking heart. He meant everything to her, without him her life would feel completely empty and void of life and joy.

She had so desperately wanted to tell him how she felt, how much he truly meant to her and how much she couldn't live without him and his wonderful smile. After what seemed like hours of endless pain her heart gave a jump as she heard her cousin screaming out to her. She didn't know what he was saying but her subconscious must have understood enough to supply her with a bit of clarity in her breaking mind. _'What… what is Nii-san saying? Is he… is he talking to me sidewards? No… I'm lying down… but how, and what is he saying?'_

"-Hinata-sama! Hinata-sama! Calm down! I was only joking, Naruto-san is at the hospital, he's fine it just looks like he burnt himself with another one of his Fox Fire Jutsu's". Neji certainly hadn't predicted his cousin to react like _this_, certainly he knew she had a crush on the blond hanyou but shit. He had no idea that she felt this strongly about him. In truth he thought she may have been a bit over-exaggerating it a bit, but that was before she fell to the ground.

Although seeing her now and the pain such a seemingly harmless joke caused her, he now just felt like a big arsehole.

Hinata felt her heart skip a beat as relief flooded her mind. _'He… he's ok… just hurt himself. I so glad… I so glad.' _Hinata broke out into a fresh loud of tears as the pain and then relief was just too much for her emotional mind. Neji still feeling like an arsehole, pulled his cousin into a sitting position before hugging her tightly, letting her cry on his shoulder.

'_Shit. That is something I'm never trying again, over-dramatised much. How can she have such strong feelings for someone this much at her age? And how the hell does he not notice? So much for Kitsune's being wise.'_ Busy mentally adding this to his notes of what not to say to his cousin he was unable to notice her pull back her arm from around his neck. That is until he felt her anger explode in the form of a high chakra powered Gentle Fist strike to his chest. Strong enough to knock him away from her and crashing though his rice paper doors on the opposite side of the horizontal corridor. Notably that was only about six meters but it still hurt like hell.

Standing up suddenly in fury, Hinata glared at the painful looking position her cousin landing before slamming her door shut. "YOU'RE A BASTARD NEJI! I CAN'T BELIVE YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS FUNNY! I HATE YOU!" Neji knew she was pissed for two good reasons, one because she was actually shouting which not only was it not a very Hyuga thing to do but Hinata also never shouted at anyone, and two because she had actually called him a bastard and said she hated him. Something she also never did.

Deciding it was best to try apologise for his terrible behaviour when she had cooled down a bit, Neji made his way to the kitchen for breakfast, praying to kami that his little triplet sisters were not yet awake. He cherished his sisters beyond anything in the world, but sometimes that were just too much to handle, dispite the fact that Naruto's sense of humour was slowly rubbing off on him he still didn't possess the energy needed to keep up with them. Before passing through the corridor he passed a quick glace back at Hinata's room. He thought it was really odd to have as strong a feeling as she did at her age, but her uncharacteristic outburst told him one thing. _'She's starting to grow up.'_

Hinata was too busy crying on her bed to care what Neji was thinking right now. He was probably laughing at how weak and babyish she must have seemed, but she didn't care. His seemingly harmless joke had cut her more then he would ever know, such a silly joke it was and yet it awoke feelings within Hinata that she never knew she had about Naruto – Fear – Fear of losing him to someone else, fear of losing him to death, fear of never being able to tell him how she felt and fear of not being able to protect him from all the threats to him in the world.

It was a realisation that shook her to her very core, it was a realisation that she might not be able to protect him and may eventually even she him die before her very eyes. What would she do then? The way she felt before when Neji tricked her. It hurt her quicker and more then anything ever before equal maybe to her mother's death. Maybe it was because Naruto was the only real thing that mattered to her anymore, without him she would have nothing, she would feel nothing, she would _be _nothing. He was her everything, and it broke her heart even thinking about being separated from him.

As she continued to cry from the shock Neji had caused her she clutched her fox plushie Naruto had given her all those years ago while pulling out one of her most treasured possessions from her nightgown. It was a small glass orb that had been shaped to resemble her crush's self proclaimed clan symbol. He had worked on it especially for her for months, and when he presented it to her he said it was not only a symbol of his clan's support for her, but he had made it special to demonstrate just how much their friendship meant to him. It was also that precise day two years ago, that Hinata had finally figured out that strange feeling that she felt when around him.

**Flashback**

Hinata sat unmoving on her best friend's hospital bed, small tears falling from her cute face as she held his hand gently, praying he would be okay. He had done it again, although this time the damage was unbelievable. His whole body save for his right arm and face had been practically burnt to cinders. The explosion that had caused these burns had also blow him through several trees, breaking many of the bones in the young hanyou's body as well as severely cracking his skull. The doctors had immediately sedated him and wrapped his wounds in special burn bandages, they eased his discomfort but they made little difference to how horrible the pain must have been for him.

Hinata's tears just increased as she imagined what he was doing to cause such damage to himself and didn't want to even know what his burnt limbs must look like. Just seeing him lying unconscious, unmoving and almost unbreathing, bandaged from head to toe and recovering from very close to fatal wounds broke her little heart. She hated to see anyone hurt, but this always applied especially to Naruto, but no matter how much see told him to be careful he would always go overboard with his training.

It was his Fox Fire that did this to him, he was once again training to learn to control the majestic flames. But its beauty just hid its true destructive might, one slip of control on Naruto's part and the whole jutsu would go haywire and literally explode in his face. According to the book that Naruto always carried with him he should have far greater control over his powers, and his Yokai Chakra should come to him much easier then it did. Although everyone just attributed this to him only being half kitsune. His human part would naturally reject the demonic chakra and its manipulation.

This reason didn't lessen Hinata's apprehension to his training however, as she always insist he either forget about his Kitsune jutsu or just lessen the intensity of his training. But sadly he never listened, he was just too headstrong. And maybe this time his stubborn nature might have actually gotten him into real trouble, because even after a full three weeks of intensive care he still hadn't awoken and Hinata had heard the doctors talking amongst themselves, saying that they weren't even sure if he would wake up. Something that scared her more then anything else in the world.

Hinata jumped when she felt her friend's hand tighten slightly. And a small blush appeared on her face as the strange warm feeling returned to her, her heart rate ever increasing as she squeezed his hand back.

"N-Naruto-kun, please w-wake up. I-I-I don't know what I w-would do i-if you didn't." She begged as she continued to squeeze his hand. Almost like she spoke a miracle Naruto's eyes began to flicker open, at first he looked like he was still unconscious, but when his eyes started to look in the direction that he heard tears, Hinata knew he was finally awake.

"Hinata-chan… whats wrong… why are you crying?" his words were laboured and raspy, clearly indication his exhaustion and parched throat. Handing him a class of water and a straw, Hinata giggle slightly between her tears as she helped him drink. Something that just made that funny feeling intensify.

"I… I did it again didn't I? Oh well, at least I finished it." Naruto said more to himself then Hinata as he noticed that he was just-for-something-different in the hospital bandaged up like a mummy.

Hinata nodded her head in agreement as she hiccuped from her tears. Although she was slightly surprised when he said he had 'finished' it. Almost like he pre-empted her thoughts Naruto spoke up. "No Hinata-chan. I didn't manage to perform one of my Fox Fire jutsu… correctly anyway. What I did finish was this instead." Slowly pulling his unburnt arm away from Hinata, he used his sharp claws to slowly cut through the casts and bandages around his chest. Hinata objected to his removal of the bandages but he just seemed to ignore her pleas.

Having removed a good portion of plaster, Naruto reached into his burnt shirt pocket and withdrew a small blue/green glass object. Hinata noted that what she could see of his chest seemed to bare no marks or signs of having been burnt, showing he was probably fully healed by now. But it was not his healed flesh that really had her attention, it was the beautiful glass swirly orn that her best friend placed gently in her hands.

"This is my clan symbol as you know Hinata-chan, but this one I made especially for you. I have been working on if for a few months now, melting and remelting it with my Fox Fire, and I have finally finished it… I am sorry that I made you worry about me, but hopefully this symbol of how much having you as my best friend means to me will make up for it." Hinata's tears began to once again well up in her eyes as she observed the glass orb in her hands. It was a brilliant blue/green colour and was shaped similarly to his regular clan symbol, but this one also had a second swirl that was entwined with the other one. And dispite the blue/green base colour you could also clearly see that one swirl was also redish while the other was also a light purple. Obviously symbolises them both together. Hinata stared in awe as the orb seemed to dance majestically as the reflected light within it seemed to mimic his Fox Fire.

The tears once again broke free as Hinata launched herself at her best friend. Careful not to touch any part of him that may still be injured Hinata squeezed her friend with all her might in both thanks for the wonderful gift and to cry away all her worry. Naruto winced slightly at the impact but soon smiled and returned the hug, despite the restrictions the casts and bandages caused.

And it was during this precise display of friendship, while lying on top of the young hanyou who was her best friend, that Hinata slowly began to recognise the strange warm feeling within her stomach. All the memories of the times they had spent with one another, his bright smile, his hilarious pranks, his faith in her, and the way he made her feel like she truly mattered to someone. It was all these things combined with the memory of a few things Tohru had told her that made her finally realise what she felt.

Naruto was her best friend but she liked him far more then just a friend.

The feeling within her stomach was the same as it always had been, but as she let the feeling wash over her, engulfing her in a new sense of happiness and joy at that new realisation she realised she right now wanted to be just near to him, close to him as she felt good to just be close to him, and feared the feelings that would come if she pulled away.

She knew now as the feeling spread throughout her body and mind that she wanted more then just his friendship, she also wanted his love. She wanted to know that they could be together like this forever, he was the best thing to ever happen in her and she would be damned if she let such a wonderful person disappear from her life. She realised that she would never want to leave that spot right then, or his side. She would be with him, always. But first she would have to build up the courage to tell him how she felt, but for now, she was content to just be held by him as she cried.

Naruto happily hugged his best friend back, blissfully unaware of the emotions that were pulsing through her body and mind. It would be years before he actually understood just how much his gift and friendship meant to Hinata, and how much it changed her for the better at the moment. But he wouldn't know it till later and perhaps too late, if he could look back on this moment and wish that he had realised his feelings for his friend as well.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, I promise to be more careful from now on." He said while smiling at her. Hinata had almost complete forgot that she was still holding on to him, having been too preoccupied by her feelings and the comfort his hold brought to her, and jumped off him while blushing madly.

"T-Thank you N-Naruto-kun. T-Thank you for e-everything." She answered as to last tears fell from her face. Tears that were once again caused by the joy he brought her.

**Flashback End**

Smiling and blushing brightly at the wonderful memory, Hinata had pretty much recovered from her cousin's joke thanks to the happiness such a memory brought her. Although her heart was once again racing.

'_I have to tell him… I can't wait any longer, I must tell him how I feel.'_ She could feel the longing in her little heart, the need to be embraced by her crush. Feeling strangely confident and filled with courage, Hinata for some reason could tell that this time she would be actually able to tell him. Whether this confidence was caused by the memory or Neji's joke she wasn't sure. All she really cared about was Naruto, he was her best friend and her his, but today she would tell him just how much her heart needed not only his friendship, but also his love.

Quickly dashing around her room to properly get dressed for the day, Hinata rushed out of her room hoping that her cousin was still eating breakfast. Although she was still mad that he played that joke on her, now that she was calm she was kind of felling bad for striking him for it. After all, such a palm strike could of killed him is she wasn't careful. She was also in a hurry because she was still worried about Naruto, even though she knew he was ok she still never liked it when he was hurt.

Neji sat cross-legged at the eating table, desperately trying to keep himself calm. And thanks to a certain triplet it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so.

"Come on nii-san-"

"You haven't finished-"

"Playing yet!"

Neji opened his eyes suddenly and starred at his younger sisters, he knew that they wouldn't stop bugging him until he gave into their demands. He knew he was a sucker for nagging but this was just ridicules. "Okay, but only once more okay?"

The triplets all started jumping for joy as their brother agreed to play with them, even if he was mostly dismissive of them and rarely played with them, they still loved their brother more then anything.

"Okay, nii-san same as-"

"Usual. You have to guess-"

"Who is who."

Without warning the three sisters hurried behind a dressing stand, before quickly revealing themselves once again and standing in front of Neji. Seemingly standing in a different order to before. "Go Neji-niisan!" They all shouted excitedly at once.

Neji wasted no time in activating his Byakugan. The all seeing eye may not have the analytical aspect of the Sharingan, but the general insight and knowledge it can provide the user was far superior, especially for someone like Neji who was quickly becoming known as the most talented Hyuga in generations. Even though the elders of the clan would never admit that a branch child possesses such power.

Studying his sisters carefully, his frustration began to rise as he mentally ticked off all those things that were different from person to person. _'Chakra circulatory systems equal, chakra capacity equal, chakra point locations exact, idle movements exactly the same, breathing rate equal, heart rate equal-" _The list went on and on as Neji continually attempted to see a difference between his sisters. About ten minutes later, Neji's frustration got the better of him and he deactivated his bloodline before just declaring their names in a random order. "You are Haono, then you are Miwa and you are Nagi."

All three girls burst out in a fit of giggles, signifying that Neji once again guessed wrong.

"Nope you are-"

"Wrong once again-"

"Onii-san!"

Neji just groaned in annoyance as they continued to giggle and laugh at him, that was about the 1178th time he was incorrect. There was just no difference, they were practically clones of one another and Neji wasn't even sure if such a thing was possible. He also had an inkling that he had guessed right on many occasions, but because there was no way to prove it they just pretended he was wrong. Guessing who was who seemed to be their most favourite game, and Neji hated it because he hated to lose to anyone. Even to his little sisters.

Sighing in defeat he congratulated his sisters on once again winning their favourite game before excusing himself from the table and leaving for the academy.

Hinata entered the dinning room properly dressed and calm a few minutes after Neji had left, she was a little disheartened that she wasn't able to apologise to her cousin for hitting him. But had little time to dwell on it as she was promptly glomped by her other cousins. More specifically: Neji's triplet sisters.

"Morning Hina-neechan!-"

"How are you? And-"

"Where is Fox-niichan?"

Hinata smiled down at her three adorable cousins. They were quite literally the cutest things that you would ever see, and Hinata quite liked their hugs. They also were quite fond of both her and Naruto, so Hinata wasn't surprised when they asked about Naruto's whereabouts. He was probably the only person apart from their parents and her who spent a lot of time with them, and he was the only person to actually keep up with their enthusiastic personalities.

"He is j-just in hospital r-right now. He apparently h-hurt himself with o-one of his F-Fox Fire Jutsu's. He s-should be fine, b-but I am going to visit him a-after the a-academy today." Hinata had to physically stop herself from squeezing the triplets in front of her with a bone crushing hug when they starting to sob. They were cute before but when they each started to cry at the thought that their favourite kitsune brother was hurt, it was almost too much.

"D-Don't cry you t-three. H-He will b-be okay. I'll e-even come g-get you s-so we can visit h-him together okay?" Hinata smiled brightly as they all stopped sobbing and nodded their little heads cutely.

Glancing at the clock her eyes widened in shock as she realised she had only twenty minutes to get to the academy. _'Oh no! How long was I crying for? I'm going to be late. And Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei are going to be really cross with me!'_ Stressing out far more then was necessary, Hinata quickly dashed for the kitchen to prepare herself a bento box for lunch and one for Naruto when she went to visit him before dashing out of the house waving a hurried goodbye to the triplets who were kind of shocked by their hurried cousin. They had wanted to play a quick game of 'Guess the Sisters' with her.

"Hey Miwa, Nagi. Don't you think everyone always seems to be in a hurry these days?" Haono asked her two sisters.

"We were going to ask the same thing so yep." The other two replied. All three of them loved to play with their family and Naruto but everyone always seemed to be in a hurry to do other things. Sighing in unison the three triplets silently decided to wake up their parents. Perhaps they would want to play.

Hinata and Ino walked into class together and sat in the back row, both of them ignoring the whispers from the other class members about why Naruto still hadn't turned up since first class yesterday. Hinata had picked up Ino from her house and filled her in on what had happened to Naruto as they both quickly ran to the academy. And to say Ino was pissed off would be a huge understatement.

"I can't believe him! The baka has gone and blown himself up again! I swear one of these days he's going to blow his arm off or something, then we will see if he tries his stupid jutsu again. He's such an idiot!" While Hinata kind of objected to Ino's yelling as someone in the class was bound to hear her and make all sorts of assumptions, she knew better then to try and say something as that was just who Ino was: loud. And while most would think what Ino said was quiet heartless in what she said, Hinata knew that she was just saying those things because she was upset and concerned for her friend.

"Hey Ino Pig! Still got the loud voice of a banshee I see. You know yelling won't get Sasuke-kun's attention!" Shouted an almost equally loud voice pinkette from the front row: Sakura.

Ino, infuriated by Sakura's insult snapped back at her with her own as she walked towards the girl that was once her best friend. "And this is coming from you Billboard Brow! Whom's voice makes even Oni Yokai cry in pain! Besides Sasuke-kun isn't even here yet!" The Billboard Brow term was used to insult Sakura's slightly bigger then usual forehead.

The insults just kept passing between the two friends-turned-rivals as the class slowly began to back away from the pair, afraid that a punch up might start and they would be caught in it. Luckily for everyone Iruka appeared before them in a puff of smoke and quickly demanded that the class settle down.

Hinata didn't even need to activate her Byakugan eyes to know that something was off with Iruka. He seemed a little sluggish in his movements and his command of silence sounded slightly slowed. Almost like his mind was concentrating on something else, something that obviously was weighing heavily upon him.

"Alright class, today as you all know, will be a basic outline on Chakra and the Chakra Network within every living being. Now Mizuki wont be here today to assist so I might call upon some of you to help out or explain your understanding of what I am about to teach. The next three weeks we will be discussing what exactly Chakra is and the different kinds and how it functions as well as various applications and use of Chakra." Iruka declared a little less enthused then he was yesterday, something Hinata immediately attributed to whatever was bothering him.

As Iruka started writing the lecture on the blackboard, Hinata immediately started coping down notes onto her workbook. She knew this material would be incredibly important as Chakra was a Ninja's key power source and was used in just about everything. Even though being in the Hyuga clan meant she knew a fair bit about Chakra as well as how to utilize it for her Gentle Fist Style, she knew that Iruka would explain it in a less stuck up way then the Hyuga Elders had. She also knew taking down more in depth notes would help her explain it later to Naruto when she caught him up on everything he missed today.

'_More time to be able to spend close to Naruto-kun.' _She thought happily as a small blush appeared on her face.

Konoha Hospital – Intensive Care Unit 7 aka Naruto's Ward

Darkness. Darkness and a sense of weightlessness was all he could register as he tried desperately to figure out where he was and what had happen to him. Images flashed before him irregularly, some recognisable, others not. Naruto had been trying to piece together his racing mind for what seemed like days. His eyes refused to open, his mouth refused to speak, and his ears and nose couldn't detect anything. He was surrounded by nothingness.

He could somewhat recognise this feeling. Every time his thoughts became his own he would realise that he felt very similar to every time he was in the hospital, unconscious.

"So, again… I'm here in this horrible hospital again then… but why? What happened this time? I… I can't seem to remember." Concentrating on recalling his most recent memories, Naruto once again found himself walking within the strange sewer he had visited many times throughout his life. Over time he somewhat realised this strange place was some section of his subconscious, and while he often objected to walking through it, it did provide a good way of searching his memories.

Traversing the closest corridor, Naruto noticed that a few things seemed to have changed in the sewer to when he was last here two years ago. The water level was slightly higher, now reaching to just over his knees and he had to keep his tails pointing upwards to prevent them getting wet. The small pipes that ran along the cement walls of the corridors were far more abundant then they use to be and seemed to emit a lot more heat then he remembered. He wasn't sure what this all meant, but he had an inkling that it had something to do with his chakra network getting stronger and is capacity was growing and allowing more Yokai chakra throughout his body. It was however, still just an inkling.

Finally coming across a floating orb, Naruto sighed when he saw that its colour was a bright red, indicating whatever memory it contained was an unpleasant one. Reaching out for the orb to relive the memory, Naruto prayed that it was the right one and not just some random memory from the past.

As soon as he touched it the memory returned to him in full, all the events of yesterday returned to the forefront of his mind. The first lesson of his first day at the academy, the principle that locked him in his office, the scents of the killed Uchiha, and his encounter with Itachi. Rage filled his mind as he once again witnessed Itachi's murder of his clansmen, and his anger only increased when he recalled the unbelievable pain caused by Itachi's weird 'Tsukuyomi' Jutsu.

Naruto barely noticed the pipes on the walls around him slightly expand and heat up rapidly as his anger built, turning the metal a brilliant red as one particular memory surfaced in his mind: the reason why Itachi was murdering his family.

_Itachi's three tomoe in his Sharingan eyes, began to merge at the pupil then extend outwards. Forming a three bladed pin-wheel. He was far from versed in charka detection, and yet even he could feel the sheer magnitude of power behind those new eyes. "This. This is why Naruto-kun. I needed to test my new powers, and what better practice can I get then my own family."_

Itachi wanted to destroy his own clan for what? To test his own new powers! That was not Itachi, he refused to believe that Itachi was capable of being such a monster.

Amidst his rage, his hatred of the man that just had to be impersonating Itachi, his thoughts on ripping said man to shreds and his hatred of himself for not stopping him, Naruto could hear two voices nearby, not necessarily calling to him but they were talking about him. Something that distracted him enough from his destructive thoughts to calm down and listen. But as he started to listen and focus on hearing their words, he slowly felt the sewer around him evaporate into nothing as his mind drifted away from his subconscious. He was waking up.

"-I still think you should hurry up and tell the gaki already. Seriously Hinata-chan, could you live with yourself if he was scooped up by someone else?" Spoke a fairly tall woman that was standing near to a very nervous Hinata.

Hinata could be happy enough if he was taken by someone else, as long as that person made him happy of course. But call her selfish if you want, but she did pray that the only person for Naruto was her. "I-I want to t-tell him A-Anko-san… I-I just d-don't know how? And w-what if he d-doesn't think the s-same way? Besides, w-we are too y-young anyway."

The woman identified as Anko emerged from her little corner covered in shadow revealing a rather beautiful woman about twenty years old. She had short purple hair held back by a hair-tie that angled it slightly up at the back and was dressed in practically nothing. Literally, the woman only wore metal shinguard ninja sandals, short tan coloured shorts and tight fitting mesh undershirt and a long open tan trench coat. Leaving barely anything to the imagination of anyone that looked at her.

Anko had first met Naruto during one of his pranks, which was caused from one of his explosives backfiring and blasting him into her as she casually strolled through the marketplace. Needless to say, she was pissed off as hell at the time that some random brat had knocked her over and proceeded to chase him all around Konoha throwing all sorts of sharp and pointed objects at him. Naruto was luckily able to escape with the help of one of his Kitsune Illusion techniques and responded to her harsh treatment of him by dumping loads of exploding sacks of various sticky substances that he had collected into her apartment building. A building that he was easily able to find by following her scent. These sacks were set up to explode a few seconds after Anko opened her apartment door.

As expected Anko immediately knew who had caused her house to be literal covered in what could only be described as a mixture of off honey and malaises thanks to all the rumours going around about a certain kitsune hanyou and his pranks, and decided that she would arrange a little payback for the brat. It was quite easy actually, she just slipped into his house and stole all of his ramen, a food she heard again via rumours that the hanyou practically worshipped.

The war that erupted between the two over that particular event, would for years still cause various villagers who had witnessed their pranks endless nightmares. Eventually it started to get a little out of hand as a fair bit of collateral damage started to get caused as the pair slowly upped the notches on the severity of their pranks and were both called into the Hokage office to sort the matter out.

At the Hokage's office they were literally ready to kill one another, but thanks to the Hokages more… forceful words, they both settled down enough to listen properly and sort their issues with each other out. From then on it didn't take long until they were both rolling on the ground, holding their sides in laughter as they both were told to recount to the Hokage their pranks. Now finding the hilarity of their short lived 'prank war' the two had soon left the Hokage's office to have a friendly chat at Ichiraku Ramen by the Hokage's order. Naruto was instructed to buy Anko some dango, which was her favourite food, and Anko was instructed to buy Naruto some ramen and finalise any more issues they had with each other.

Anko had grown up with a similar treatment from the villagers as Naruto had, as her sensei had become a national criminal after betraying Konoha and the people of the village immediately assumed that by relation that she was also a traitor. Their playful, sarcastic and trickster personalities mixed well with one another, so naturally they became close friends soon after all these events, despite Anko's more… sadistic temperaments. And it was only a few months later, and after a few joint pranks on the villagers, that Naruto and Anko had developed their friendship to a more family level. Naruto considering her as another older sister and she considering him the brother she wished she had.

They were able to understand each other's pain on a far greater level then anyone and as such they were a great comfort to one another. Something that Hinata was very happy for as she had always known that even though she would always be Naruto's best friend, she would never be able to empathise with him the pain he still feels and the mental scars that the villagers had caused him. Although, as Hinata looked at the evil glint in the older woman's eyes right now, Hinata wasn't sure if she liked Anko very much right now.

"You don't think he will return your feelings? That's a pretty stupid reason to not tell someone how you feel. Perhaps-" She said playfully as her evil grin increased in size. "-I should tell him for you?" Hinata didn't know how, but for some reason she knew that Anko was going to say that, but it still scared the life out of her. And the blood out of her face as Hinata had gone completely white in fright.

"Y-Y-You w-wouldn't d-d-do t-that w-would y-you A-Anko-san?" Hinata started to shake in fear as Anko's grin seemed to increase in size again, and had she been in a calmer mindset Hinata would have been wondering if Anko was performing some sort of Genjutsu to get her face to appear like that.

"Oh would you like to make a bet on that my dear little Hinata-chan. I'll probably even tell him about those cute little romantic dreams you have too." Hinata's fright that Anko was serious was so great that she started to tear up. She didn't want to have Naruto told by someone else how she felt, and she certainly didn't want Anko to tell him all her dreams. Even if they were still innocent dreams as she still hadn't had 'The birds and the bees' talk yet, they were still very embarrassing to her, and the thought that Anko would tell Naruto about them almost caused her to faint on the spot.

Although a certain hanyou had been listening in on this conversation since he regained consciousness, and with Anko's last statement he was so thoroughly confused he finally voiced a question. "Hey onee-chan, what the hell are you going on about?"

Having not known that Naruto was awake Hinata jumped at the sudden voice and 'epp'ed rather loudly in fright. But as soon as her brain processed that Naruto was awake, it also processed what he said. _'Oh my god! How much did he hear! What if he heard the first half of what we were talking about? Then he would know… know how I fe-'_ Hinata's mind overloaded from embarrassment at the thought that Naruto now knew her feelings, couple that and the fact that she was already nervy from what Anko had been saying she promptly fainted.

"Oh nice one gaki, now you've gone and made her pass out. And I was just starting to have fun too." Anko knew when Naruto had regained consciousness as she detected the slight fluctuation in his chakra and as such had been wording her sentences so that Hinata would know what she was on about, but not Naruto. Basically she just wanted to mess a little with the young hyuga's head. One of her favourite past times in fact.

"What? What do you mean? And how is that my fault? You were the one who probably made Hinata pass out with your weirdness you creepy snake lady." As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them immediately. While he was only meaning the insult playfully, Anko's version of playful was usually a bit more… painful.

Appearing in an instant next to his bed, Anko laughed playfully as she watched her little brother try to squirm away from the kunai knife she held against his throat. "Careful you little gaki. I've neutered men before for lesser words, don't think just because I love you and your annoying cuteness doesn't mean I won't do the same to you little brother, ok?"

Gulping at her words Naruto nodded as best he could with a kunai knife at his throat, trying desperately to grab her hands with his tails. He knew she wouldn't actually hurt him, but it still scared the crap out of him. "Good, I expect you to remember that gaki. Now, lets wake up little miss lavender here as she has something to talk to you about." Anko said as she reached for the vase of flowers next to his hospital bed.

Gently removing the bright sunflowers Anko grinned evilly before dumping the vase's water all over the passed out heiress. Scrambling around in a mixture of shock and confusion, Hinata quickly stood up when she noticed Anko standing next to her as she tried to move her now wet hair away from her eyes. Was that anyone else they would have chucked a bit tantrum and yelled and screamed at Anko, but Hinata being Hinata just nervously fiddled with her hands as she blushed bright red in embarrassment.

"Right Hinata-chan, I do believe you have something to tell Naruto-kun here right?" Anko smiled again as she noticed Hinata's reaction to her words. She just loved Hinata's personality as it was so cute, and so fun to pick on.

Turning to her crush, Hinata edged forwarded slowly to his medical bed. Her head slowly sinking further and further into her oversized and now wet jacket. "Um… N-Naruto-kun I um… w-wanted to k-know if um… what I-I mean is, um-" Anko rolled her eyes at the girl's attempt at speaking to her crush and had half a mind to just spit it out for her. "I-I um… do y-you maybe…" Hinata mentally sighed at her own failing attempts, she had been so confident earlier that day as well as the afternoon when her and the triplets came to visit Naruto. But as soon as Tohru had come to collect the triplets and she was left alone with Naruto, she felt her confidence falter again. No matter how hard she tried to tell him, she just couldn't.

'_Maybe next time I'll be able to tell him. I wish I was strong, like Naruto-kun and Neji-niisan. Then maybe I might be able to tell him'_

"Are y-you ok Naruto-kun?" She just wanted to cry when the words came out, she tried so hard but in the end she just changed the subject like always. It hurt her that she wasn't strong enough to tell him, even after so long, even after all the help and training she'd done with Neji and Naruto, she still couldn't even overcome something simple like her stuttering and fear of telling Naruto how she feels. _'He deserves someone stronger…'_

Naruto who had seated himself upright looked down at his sheets as Hinata asked him. His ears lowering themselves to display his sadness. He felt so guilty, so angry, and so crushed. He had sworn all those years ago when his mother had been taken away from him, that no matter what he would protect everyone in the Hidden Leaf Village so that no one, including himself, would have to feel the pain that death caused.

As Naruto's gaze rose once again to look at his friend and his sister, they both gasped at the emotions they held within them. They looked so far off, dead, lifeless, almost like they were the eyes of someone long dead: they looked defeated and crushed. Before any of them could say a word he spoke up again, his voice mimicking his eyes. A tone that Hinata hadn't heard him use since her mother had died. Anko knew what he was going to say, as she as well as all the other jonin of the leaf village had already been told what had happen last night.

"I failed… I failed and now they are all dead. I couldn't keep my promise…"

Sasuke's Hospital Ward

Sasuke stared unmoving at his hospital sheets as he sat up straight. He had been awake for hours, not that he cared, as he was far too preoccupied with the emotions twisting inside of him. The anger, the rage, the hurt, the undisputable hatred he felt. All of these emotions were clawing at his mind, pulling him closer to the darkness that threatened to engulf his heart. He wanted nothing more then to rip the heart of his brother right out of his chest, and crush it as his brother died before him. But the memories stayed such thoughts.

The memories of what had occurred last night, those fateful events were forever burned within his mind by his own brother's jutsu. These memories would forever serve as the most painful reminder of what he had lost last night, _but_, they would also serve as a reminder of what his clan had done to deserve such fate.

**Flashback**

Sasuke was hurrying back to his clan's estate as fast as his legs could carry him, he was very late to return home, but he had good reason to be as he had finally completed the second Fire Jutsu of the Uchiha clan: the Phoenix Flower Jutsu.

He had spent many hours practices each day to be able to perform the Jutsu correctly, he had wanted to show it too his father, to receive some amount of praise from one of the four most important people in his life. His father had always been so dismissive of him, choosing to shower praise on his older brother Itachi, who had by Sasuke's age already become a Jonin.

But most of all, despite on how much he loved his father and yearned for his approval, he wished more then anything to see his brother smile at him again with pride.

He wasn't sure if anyone had noticed and he wasn't sure why, but his big brother had been oddly distant the last few weeks, and had even outright ignored and sometimes even disobeyed their father's commands. His brother no longer smiled anymore and always seemed to move like he had a huge amount of weight pressing down upon him. Almost like he had some huge guilt that was crushing him.

He wasn't sure why or what even caused his brother to become so unhappy and burdened, but he hoped that he might be able to make him smile again. Even if only for a few seconds.

Sasuke rounded the corner of the walls that sealed off his clan's estate and stumbled slightly when he noticed the gates were wide open, something that rarely ever happen. His natural instincts as an Uchiha kicked in and he instantly started searching for any reason why the gates were opened, as he carefully walked through them.

The first thing he noticed was the lack of light, practically all of the torches around the estate had been extinguished. The only thing providing some sense of illumination was the full moon above him. He started to shack involuntarily as various thoughts entered his mind, looking around desperately to find some sort of life he began calling out to random members of his family that lived in this section of the estate.

"F-Father, Mother! Uncle! Aunty! Big Brother!" He shivered slightly as he heard no answer. Where was his family? Were they here or at a meeting somewhere? He didn't know, and not knowing scared him.

Suddenly feeling like he was being watched, stared at like prey before the predator, Sasuke spun around. There was nothing behind him, nobody at all was within sight. The only thing that was clearly visible was the eerie full moon that hung in the sky. As he glanced at directly at the moon, he could have sworn he noticed a shadowy figure standing atop a post. But as soon as he looked in that direction there was no one there.

His heart rate began to climb exponentially as fear began to grip his heart. This silence, this eerie moonlight and complete lack of life caused all sorts of fear induced images to flash before his eyes. He didn't know why, but he just wanted to get away, he just wanted to run for his home and see his family's faces. To most it would seem like a childish fear, but Sasuke had grown up in the comfort of a large family, and not seeing any of them throughout the estate was a worrying sight indeed.

Suddenly taking off, he started running through the many side streets of his clan's compound, intent of getting home as fast as possible. Despite the fact that the fear in his heart was clouding his judgement and he was taking a few wrong turns.

Turning the last corner needed Sasuke emerged into the main courtyard next to his home, and froze at what he saw. His mind cracked at what he saw and it was desperately telling him to move, to run from the horror that lay before him. But he couldn't, for some reason he stood stuck in place shaking in fright, almost like his body was bound by some sort of paralysing jutsu. His eyes remained wide, staring at the horrible sight that would forever be burnt within his mind.

Standing before him a mere ten metres away was a shadowed figure clad in Anbu armour, a cloak of shadow caused by the moonlight covered the figures face. It wasn't the armed figure that terrified Sasuke though, it was the man that was impaled upon the figure's blade and the literal sea of bloodied bodies before him that shattered his mind.

Falling to his knees as shock shook him to his very core, tears began to fall from his face as he cried out in pain at the bodies he recognised. "A-Aunty… Uncle… F-Father, Father! FATHER!" The moon had shifted just enough to fully reveal the current victim of the shadowed figure, Sasuke's father's body hung lifeless on the blade that pierced his heart. "W-Why?... What's going on?... W-Who are you?" Sasuke screamed while scrambling backwards, his mind clouded by the pain that cut at his young heart. He was staring at his murdered family, and the killer was standing right before him. He started to stand to run away when he noticed the killer turn his still shadow-covered head towards him

As soon as he noticed Sasuke begin to back off he violently pulled the blade from the chest of his final victim. Allowing the body to fall ungracefully to the floor, it's gapping wound adding to massive pool of blood that would forever stain the stones of the central Uchiha courtyard. He then disappeared from sight and appeared directly infront of the escaping boy before slamming a fist hard into the young Uchiha's gut, winding him and effectively immobilising him.

"I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to leave." The figure said in a tone that seemed frightfully familiar to Sasuke. Stepping forward slowly as Sasuke continued to scramble backwards, the figure allowed the moonlight to reveal his identity. "There is not point in runny little brother, you are far from strong enough to stop me."

Sasuke froze and his eyes widened as he stared up into the emotionless face of his older brother. To hurt and confused to comprehend what was happening, Sasuke was barely able to speak as he tried desperately to breath in air as his body continued to shake in fear. "Itachi-niisan… W-What's going on! Everyone's d-dead… What have you done? What have you done big brother?"

"I have eliminated a threat. Our clan was deserving of the punishment dealt to them, they deserved their death. Even father." Itachi replied in a cold and uncaring way. On the inside he was dying from guilt, but he needed to remain strong and explain everything to his little brother. It was the least he could do.

Deserving of death? How could anyone, especially his own family be deserving of being slaughtered by their blood. _'He… He killed them. Itachi killed them all… how can he. HOW CAN HE SAY THEY ALL DESERVED THIS!' _

Within the torrent of emotions that were flooding his mind and body, Sasuke felt a dark presence build within him. A flare of emotion that overpowered all the rest, fuelled by his quickly increasing rage at his brother. Hatred. Sasuke could feel the powerful desire to kill his brother suddenly rage within him. Grabbing a kunai from within his weapon pouch and ignoring the pain and hurt, Sasuke stood up and charged at his brother, intent on killing him now and then. He didn't know why he suddenly had such a mood swing, but his clouded mind wouldn't allow for any sort of rational thinking.

Itachi almost smirked at his little brother's outburst, and easily sidestepped the strike before again punching him in his stomach. "Why… why would you do this? Tell me! Tell me why you would do this Itachi!" Sasuke wheezed out between gasping breaths as he held his stomach tightly.

Itachi kneeled down in front of his sprawling brother while gathering chakra to his eyes. He had decided on what he would do, but he still wished it could have been better. The idea that came to him from Naruto's words was better then he had originally planed. But he still wished for better. Reaching out and tilting his brother's head, Itachi briefly smiled at his little brother before speaking.

"We have fallen far little brother, too far. And it was my job to fix that. Our clan is not what you thought it was, and I will show you why." Sasuke could only watch in shock as his tear filled eyes witnessed Itachi's Sharingan eyes change, then hell began.

**Flashback end**

Sasuke clenched his fists as he recalled the time he spent in the world of 'Tsukuyomi'. Three days. Three days of equivalence he spent being tortured. He wasn't tortured physically in the illusion world. No he was tortured mentally as he was shown all the hideous crimes his clan had committed over the years. All the cover-ups that were kept from Konoha and the Hokage, and worst of all their planned coup-de-grace of the Hokage. They were suppose to be the police force of Konoha, and yet they had planned to betray Konoha worse then anyone ever before.

Sasuke was sickened to think of his family, they had been the most important thing in the world to him, he loved them, he trusted them. And more then anything he took pride in being an Uchiha. But now it seemed that everything he knew, everything he thought about what it meant to be an Uchiha was wrong. He was born to a family of traitors and would always live with the crushing guilt that he had once thought himself better then the rest of Konoha because of his clan status, but in reality he and his clan was the worst of the worst.

He loved his brother, but he couldn't cease the hatred he held for the actions Itachi had done. Sure he now saw it was necessary, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt him any less. Perhaps with time he could learn to forgive Itachi for murdering his family, but for now he just cried his heart out at the lose dealt to him.

He could feel the dark emotions burning brightly within him, it had crushed him more then he thought possible to virtually first hand witness the countless murder's, the secret meetings, the cover-ups of his clan. But what had hurt him the most, was the person he looked up to the most, the person he most sort their approval from, was the one who had organised everything: Sasuke's father.

Amidst the tears that fell from his face, and the pain that gripped his aching heart, Sasuke noticed a person reveal themself before him by stepping into the light of his hospital ward. The person was easily recognised by Sasuke and it shook him to his very core to see that person alive and he could do nothing to hold back even more tears as he reached out to that person for comfort.

The person that stood before him, was obviously female, had long straight dark hair and a very skinny build, her pitch black eyes were glassy and the whites were bloodshot; clearly indicating that she had been crying. She was dressed in a light blue kimono, fresh and clean showing that it was probably a spare from the hospital. She had been told to stay in her ward until the doctors had given her permission to leave, but she just couldn't stay. She had been so tormented by what Itachi had too shown her that she could hardly comprehend what she was doing right now. But she knew she needed to see her son, to comfort him and be comforted from.

Mokoto, Sasuke's mother, was standing before her son as he wept. Sasuke didn't know what to say, and he could only rasp out one word before Mokoto sat on her son's hospital bed and embraced him as they both cried. "M-Mother?"

Neither had known of the other's survival so it was a huge shock upon seeing each other's faces. A big shock yes, but not an unwelcomed one. Maybe together they could help heal the holes in their hearts. Mokoto's heart broken by her husband's betrayal of the village and what he had forced the clan to do and what her older son had been forced to fix, and Sasuke's heart broken by what his whole clan had done and what his brother had been forced to do.

Each of them remembering Itachi's last words to them both as they held each other close and eventually fell asleep, exhausted by their tears and pain at what their family had done. _"I have left those who did not follow the clan's filth in their plan alive. It will be up to you to ensure that our clan returns to their former path and rid us of the curse that follows all Uchiha. I have done my part, it is now time for me to leave the rest to you. Make the family that I love so much strong again and worthy of the respect that the village gives to us. I will always love you, goodbye."_

Sasuke's last thoughts were similar to his mothers, he would do everything within his power to create a new and better Uchiha clan, one that was far more deserving of their status, one that would be their to defend the village and give those around him hope.

Itachi could have simply told the village and the Hokage what the clan had been doing and then the clan would have probably been completely wiped out. But instead he had made it appear as if he was a traitor and just killed his family for no reason, therefore saving his clan's honour by sacrificing his own. Something Sasuke would never forget, and would forever honour.

Many miles away from Konoha

Itachi glanced back over his shoulder for at least the thousandth time that day a few tears still fell from his eyes at what he had done. He had killed most of his family and in turn saved Konoha and perhaps even saved the remainder of his family from themselves. But at what cost? He had murdered his family to keep Konoha safe from them but also safe from another being. That very person was standing right before him, staring at him with cold and hard eyes. Eyes filled with madness, insanity and a thirst for revenge.

"We had a deal Itachi. And you broke your part, you betrayed me. I should kill you right here for you insolence." The man had turned his back to Itachi, and most of his body was now covered by tree shadow. The only thing visible to the normal human eye was his crimson samurai armour.

Itachi was still very exhausted from fighting his clan, but he couldn't let it show. Standing up straight Itachi quickly activated his Sharingan eyes. "You could try if you like, but you will not find it an easy job. Age has not been kind to you, you are but a shell of your former self. Which is why you needed my help. If you wish to fight me then you will not leave unscathed, if you leave at all. Now come-" Settling into his clan's advance fighting stance, Itachi returned the man's earlier gaze. "-Madara Uchiha."

Miles away from the battle that took place, people could feel the earth beneath them tremor. They didn't know what was happening nor did they know that those tremors were of a battle that would either be their salvation or their destruction. Sadly history would indeed never have the epic battle that took place that day recorded in its history, as no one who would have witnessed it lived to tell a soul.


	19. Chapter 18: Mysterious Interference and

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Right another chapter here. A little longer then last but eh.

Anyway, I kind of liked this one... except for the last part... it seemed a bit dull... ANYWAY With this chapter concludes all of Naruto's young life and next chapter will move onto his ninja career!... about freaking time too.

As to the real novel, it is turning out five times better and more! Mainly because I am writing it properly and not dragging on and on and on like I seem to be with this fanfiction. Anyway, if you have any requests about what you would like in the novel or any suggestions on fixes to my writing style (even though I'm writing this fanfiction differently) feel free to contact me and I shall gladly take a read.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plotline in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 18 – Mysterious Interference and Truths Revealed

Itachi winced sharply as he pulled the last of the shuriken from his arm, quickly bandaging the wound with a piece of cloth he tore from his trousers before the blood lose affected him. He sighed deeply as he collapsed backwards, falling onto his makeshift camp bed. His body was beyond exhausted, his chakra supply was practically zero and his eyes hurt immensely from overuse of his sharingan.

But in a way this feeling of complete exhaustion was thrilling to him, amongst all the pain and guilt of murdering his family he had found the challenge in life that he had always sort. Madara Uchiha was a member of Itachi's clan, but was easily over 100 years of age. How he had lived this long Itachi would never know, but one thing he did know was that all the clan stories about him and his profess in battle were correct. Itachi had been forced to use every once of his power just even staying alive. Every technique he could perform, every taijutsu he knew, every ninjutsu he knew and every single Sharingan technique in his repertoire was only enough to keep him on the run.

It was a severe wake up call to the young Uchiha, proof to him that he was not simply the strongest and that their were still people in the world that could provide him with a challenge, a goal to meet, an wall to overcome. Apart from the challenge though, there was something else that was interesting about Madara.

According to clan records Madara had left the clan on unfriendly terms. From what, Itachi was never able to uncover. But from what he had seen during his battle with him Itachi was convinced that whatever it was had caused an incalculable amount of hatred towards the Uchiha clan to develop within the aged man.

Madara was the one to originally request that Itachi kill of his clan and from that Itachi knew that Madara wanted vengeance. But the level of uncontrolled rage that Madara displayed in their battle when Itachi had told him about not killing everyone was off the charts. In almost every Hidden Village the ninja code instructed that a ninja was not to let their emotions show or control them during a battle, as level headedness was the key to victory. But Madara seemed to be completely overcome by his hatred and need for revenge and yet he was still able to hold complete focus in battle.

Thoughts of Naruto and the effects his Yokai chakra had on his mind and way of thinking filtered into his tired mind. Itachi knew that Naruto had more raw power then almost anyone in the hidden leaf village, but it was clear to everyone that that power clouded his mind and his judgement. But with Madara, this was not the case, his power seemed to complement his dark emotions and fuel his hatred. A combination that Itachi was barely able to escape alive.

Itachi winced again as he shifted slightly when he thought about how he escaped. Originally in the battle Itachi had been able to keep everything even, but the amount of chakra he had used in his families massacre quickly began to catch up to him, and he had soon found himself on the defensive, fearing for his life from Madara's vicious onslaught. If he had his full supply of chakra however, Itachi may have even defeated Madara.

"If it wasn't for those three masked figures… I probably wouldn't have been able to survive."

**Flashback**

Itachi felt a massive amount of heat build up behind him and instinctively dodged the incoming fireball by jumping to the right. But as he did he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder as another kunai lodged itself deep into his flesh.

It had been like this for the past hour, Madara would throw offensive jutsu at Itachi and lure him into a multitude of traps and then pursue him with a barrage of taijutsu. Having known the pattern for some time Itachi quickly scanned his surroundings, watching with his Sharingan eyes for any trace of movement.

Catching a small leaf flicker suddenly, Itachi spun around suddenly, slamming a kunai he held into Madara's. Both Uchiha pushed hard against their combatants weapon, hoping the other would somehow overbalance.

"You are pathetic Itachi! You and your worthless family will soon pay the price of betraying me! I'll wipe every one of them out! Something you had promised to do in exchange for the safety of your pathetic village!" Itachi winced slightly at the accusation, which was more then enough for Madara, who took the opportunity to force back Itachi's kunai, throwing him off balance enough to resume his attack.

Slamming his fist firmly into Itachi's gut, he quickly shifted left allowing his right elbow to harshly meet Itachi's forehead as he buckled over from the strike to the gut. But Madara wasn't finished. Waiting until Itachi had began to stumble backwards, he pushed forward and knocked his target away with a chakra empowered sidekick, again to the gut.

Itachi chocked for air as he slamming hard into a tree. Gaping for air Itachi suddenly for the first time since he was 8 found himself genuinely fearful for his life and that fear only increased when he saw a barrage of kunai with explosive paper bombs attached to them fly towards him.

'_Is this the end?... After everything that has happened? I did pray for judgement on what I did for my family. But so soon? I originally had wanted Sasuke to be the one to be the one to take my life for my sins… but that changed and I found a new path for the clan. But now, now Madara will take his revenge. And all because I wanted a better life for my family… I have let them all down…' _Forcing his head up, Itachi watched in slow motion as his Sharingan eyes tracked the movements of the approaching kunai, analysing their exact trajectory path and how long they would take to reach him. Had he more strength and energy, he would have easily been able to escape from the kunai and their attached explosives, but that strength was far from fleeting.

Slowly bowing his head in both exhaustion and grief, Itachi resigned himself to his fate, he would perish here, alone and without his family. Apart from the massacre of his family he didn't have many regrets, as despite his sheltered and controlled life, thanks to his father, Itachi had enjoyed his young life, especially after Naruto began to open his heart a little to the joys of the world.

Itachi smiled as various images of his younger brother and his young hanyou friend flashed before his eyes. The three of them had become fairly good friends in the years they had known each other, and Itachi had seen a bit of rivalry form between the two younger boys, a rivalry to see who could beat him obviously.

Sasuke didn't have the same level of ability and talent as Itachi did, but even Itachi had to admit that his younger brother had equal if not more drive to better himself. Something Itachi wished more of his clan possess. And Naruto had vast amounts of innate power, far more then Itachi's own, and yet it was all bundle up into a single innocent boy who's main goal in life was to prove to everyone that he wasn't the monster they saw him as.

In all his life, Itachi's proudest moments was when he was helping and instructing those two, they were both precious to him, his best friends, and it was the knowledge that he had somehow helped brighten their future through his training that kept the smile that was still on his face. Even now as he watched his death approach.

'_Those two will go far. I have faith that they will succeed in their lives, they are willing to risk everything for their village no matter the cost, Konoha needs more like them…'_ Looking up again at his approaching death Itachi smile suddenly vanished as he saw Madara standing atop a branch barely a few meters away, watching in delight at Itachi's predicament. Having already pre-empted Itachi's gaze with his own Sharingan, Madara decided to further torment his opponent by mouthing five quick words.

After you, Konoha will fall.

Itachi froze as his Sharingan interpreted the mouthed words. He had forgotten that little fact in these last few moments, Madara wanted Konoha's destruction, and without Itachi in his way, all that remained was the Hokage and perhaps some of the elite Jonin of the village. _'I see… So after everything that has happened all efforts have been fruitless… I had never predicted that it would turn out this way… I have failed little brother… I'm sorry…' _Almost in response to his thoughts Itachi saw a vision of Naruto and Sasuke looking down upon him. Both of them with looks of disgust on their faces.

"I hate you big brother! You murdered our clan! And for what? You told me that our clan was weak and that we had become far too arrogant and drunk with our own power. But you lie! Father always thought you were the best, the pride of our clan. But I can see now that he was wrong, you're a coward Itachi! And I am ashamed to have every called you my big brother." The vision of Sasuke before him hurt Itachi deeply. Sasuke was the only person apart from their mother that Itachi held any love for in the clan, and to see the look of disgust, to hear the touches of hatred and malice in his voice. Broke Itachi's already bleeding heart.

Turning his gaze to the vision of Naruto, Itachi could already feel the tears falling from his face as he looked upon the enraged physique of his hanyou friend.

"You were always someone I looked up too, everytime we trained together and everytime you showed me something new I was so happy. You were exactly what I wanted to be Itachi, everyone loved you, the whole village respected you and worshipped you as their protector." Itachi flinched slightly as he witnessed the explosion of red chakra from the vision of Naruto, its bloodlust and fiery emotions biting deep into his slipping mind. The vision of Naruto before him spoke again, but this time with the same hatred as Sasuke had just moments ago. His tail's movements mimicking his rage.

"**But you are unworthy of their love! You would murder your family to protect the village you said you loved so much, and then give up the first time you think you might lose in a fight! I would never compare my life to yours Itachi, but I have had many trying times and I never give up no matter how hurtful they are! You are worthless Itachi, you are no better then the fox sealed inside me! YOU ARE A MONSTER ITACHI!" **Itachi always prided himself in his ability to keep his emotions under control, but the pressure he had been forced to endure from the murder of his clan and the utter exhaustion he felt had long since broken his mind. And each word the visions before him spoke cut him deeply.

'_They are right… Everything I did was for the village. And now I'm just going to let Madara ruin the peace I helped secure… He will destroy everything…' _The image of the village he copied with his sharingan yesterday appeared before him, and before his eyes he saw the various symbols of peace crumble away before the flames of Madara's destruction. The houses amongst the village were alight with fire from his jutsu, families were huddled together as their lives sure swiftly taken from them with his blades, and the Hokage was pierced with a thousand kunai his last words cursing Madara.

This was not what Itachi wanted, he refused to believe that the peace within Konoha could be destroyed by one person hell bent on revenge. He would refuse to allow it!_ 'No… No! He can't! Not after everything that was done to save my clan and protect the village! I won't let him destroy the village I love!' _

Itachi's head snapped up to face the fast oncoming kunai as he forced all the remnants of his chakra towards his eyes. He had developed the next level of the sharingan only a few days ago, the Mangekyō Sharingan. This level could only be achieved by someone put under the emotional strain brought on by killing you best friend. Something Itachi did during his investigation of his family when his best friend, Shisui, had been told to keep tabs on him by the clan.

The Mangekyō Sharingan is far more powerful then the usual Sharingan and is what allowed Itachi to use both Amatarasu and Tsukuyomi. The exponential power comes with a cost however, overusing the Mangekyō risks serious damage to the user's eyesight, potentially leaving them blind if recklessly overused.

Itachi didn't know why or how he knew what he was doing, but he didn't care, he just for some reason knew that he had to do everything within his power to stop Madara. Even if he failed, he could at least die knowing he tried to protect the remainder of his family and the village that meant so much to him.

A loud explosion was heard for miles as the kunai paper bombs impacted upon their target, virtually reducing the surrounding landscape to ashes and igniting the rest in flames. Madara smirked in delight as he watched the forest burn around him. Destruction. Pure destruction, it pleased him more then anything to watch the last real threat to his plans of revenge against Konoha fall before him.

"Now, with you out of the way there is nothing stopping me from destroying the family who betrayed me all those years ago. At long last, I can finally have my revenge!" Madara broke out into a fit of insane laughter as he watched the dust caused from the explosion begin to settle. That laughter ceased instantly when he saw and felt a massive amount of chakra explode from within the falling dust.

From the smoke, dust and ash, a huge spectral ribcage composed entirely of bright red chakra could be seen emerging from where Itachi was before the kunai stuck. A large pulse of chakra quickly cleared away the cover of smoke, clearly revealing Itachi, unharmed from the explosion, standing within the spectral body that surrounded him a good five meters.

"What! But how? You should have been incinerated!... Wait… that form. No! There's no way you have learnt how to use that jutsu! THERE'S NO WAY YOU COULD HAVE LEANRT WHAT I COULD NOT!" In his sudden rage, Madara launched another volley of kunai, this time without the paper bombs, but instead opting to launch three consecutive fire jutsu.

Itachi struggled to stay standing as he felt the drain of chakra this latest jutsu used, glancing at the red chakra ribs that surrounded him he took notice of the space left open by the ribs as he knew that the new oncoming kunai would only be blocked by the ribs. Analysing their trajectory paths Itachi shifted his body slightly therefore moving the ribs into the correct position.

Several clinks were heard as the kunai harmlessly bounced off the spectral skeleton, and with the kunai deflected Itachi was easily able to take his time jumping out of the road of the oncoming fire jutsu. Landing a little hard, Itachi turned his gaze towards the raging Madara.

"You will not be allowed to leave here alive Madara Uchiha. I will ensure that the Village Hidden in the Leaves is never touched by your vengeful soul. You will never defeat me now. It is incomplete but now that I have the one jutsu that your own Mangekyō would never provide you, I have Susanoo!" Itachi declared while charging forward drawing a kunai from within his shirt. Meanwhile he was subconsciously pumping more chakra into his new Susanoo jutsu improving it by forming a complete spectral rib cage and two skeletal arms.

Susanoo was another technique that the Mangekyō Sharingan could provide its user, albeit very few could use it. It used both eyes to create a living spectre composed entirely of charka that would shield its creator from all attacks. The spectre being chakra based meant that is form was greater depending on the amount of chakra used and the nature of that chakra. Meaning that Itachi's Susanoo was chances are quite different in shape then past users of the jutsu.

Rushing to meet his advisari in a fit of rage, Madara withdrew his katana and swiftly swung it downwards to meet Itachi's kunai. However, even though the Sharingan could easily predict body movements, the expected path of Susanoo's movement was beyond even Madara who was caught completely off guard when a skeletal arm moved in front of his blade, allowing Itachi to take advantage of the new opening and throw a handful of shuriken at Madara with his free hand.

Most of the shuriken bounded harmlessly of Madara's crimson samurai armour, but a few found their marks allowing Itachi to once again press forward.

Where Itachi was on the run before, he was now on the attack. Every weapon Madara threw his way was effortlessly knocked aside by the twin spectral arms while the fiery red chakra ribs protected him against the various elemental jutsu Madara attempted to destroy him with. However, such a technique was beyond draining and Itachi was already ridiculously low on chakra before even first using the technique.

Knowing that he would soon run completely out of chakra Itachi decided to end things as soon as possible and used his Mangekyō to control Susanoo into blocking Madara's latest assault with one arm and knocking away, solidly into a large tree, with the other.

Rushing forward having drawn his own blade, Itachi prepared himself to end Madara's life and protecting Konoha for generations to come. However, Madara had far from had enough and pushed himself from the tree he had struck and dashed straight for Itachi's outstretched blade.

"ENOUGH! I REFUSE TO BE DEAFETED BY ONE SUCH AS YOU WHEN I WAS SO CLOSE TO MY GOAL! WHEN I WAS SO CLOSE TO MY REVENGE!"

Itachi's eyes widened in shock as he watched Madara impale himself onto his outstretched katana. It shocked him that Madara would volenterily do such a thing, but nothing could have prepared him for the shock caused when instead of stopping at the hilt of the sword, Madara actually continued past it phasing right through the blade and Itachi completely unharmed, almost like he was a ghost.

"Foolish child thought you could defeat me! I teach you for your insolence." Having been too shocked by what had just occurred Itachi didn't have the time to turn around before Madara, who was now directly behind him, pulled out two kunai knives and plunged them between the spectral bones of Susanoo deeply into Itachi's back and shoulder before kicking him away with a harsh chakra powered side kick.

The sheer force of the blow caused Itachi to fly back, the pain caused from both the strike and the kunai coupled with his sheer lack of chakra shook Itachi's concentration, causing his Susanoo jutsu to deactivate along with his Sharingan eyes. Itachi had no idea how Madara literally phased through his attack, but it was an amazing ability and would probably be the deciding factor of the battle.

Glaring darkly at his fallen advisary Madara gave an evil chuckle before flashing through a quick series of hand signs and prepared the necessary chakra. "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Opening his mouth widely Madara released a huge concentration of flames within a single blast easily his height in radius.

Itachi watched from his short distance away as the flames quickly approach him, to meet their objective of incinerating him. If he had the chakra he would have used his Amateratsu to beat back the flames, but it would have proven useless as Madara had already shown that he too could use Amateratsu earlier in their battle. And with his larger supply of chakra his would have easily beaten Itachi's. So closing his eyes Itachi signed himself to his fate and awaited the superheated flames that would end his life, flames that strangely enough never came.

"Earth Style: Stone Wall Jutsu!" Called a gruff mature sounding voice before a solid wall of stone about six foot in width and twelve foot in height quickly formed in front of Itachi, saving him from the flames as they impacted against the strong defensive jutsu. As the flames finally parted much of the solid stone wall had been melted into molten rock.

The anonymous figure appeared next to the half melted wall, he was of average height and build and wore a long dark brown cloak that hid his identity. Without barely any signs of movement he quickly signalled to his partners, whom also appeared next to his wall upon his signal. Both of his two partners wore the same cloaks he did.

"I would ask that your battle end here Uchiha. Both of you are necessary for our plans and we cannot have you kill each other... at this present time anyway. I am definitely not strong enough to defeat either of you and never will, but with my two partners here I do believe that we have enough power to kill both of you in your weakened states as you are both seriously low on chakra. If you both had full chakra supplies well… that's a different matter." The mans voice was aged and sounding full of wisdom and experience, but it also held a certain tone to it that made both Uchiha think carefully about their next actions.

Itachi personally was quite happy for the timely intervention of the three strangers that had saved his life, but was still cautious about their motives. Madara on the other hand was furious that these three buffoons had interrupted his jutsu and then demanded that he leave in the middle of a battle.

"What is the meaning of this? How dare you demand that I just leave! I will not have anyone else stand in the way of my revenge! Not Itachi, not you! And certainly not any of your pathetic lackeys!" Madara activated his Mangekyō Sharingan in preparation to blast them all to oblivion with his Amateratsu, but halted his attack when he felt the chakra signatures that had virtually appeared all around him, hidden behind what remained of the forest.

"Ah, I see you have noticed that my so called lackeys have you surrounded. They are not just ordinary thugs and they will not let you live or escape if you chose to continue your battle." Madara was raging inside but even he had to admit that it was in his best interest to adhire to the cloaked strangers terms.

He was sure that he could kill most if not all of those that had surrounded him, but it was best to not push things encase they were stronger then they let on. He wasn't a fool and he knew when it was best to just walk away, besides, there would always be another day when he could destroy Konoha and his tratoirous family.

"Fine! I will leave this pathetic wretch to just die from his own wounds. But I would like to know the name of the person who demands of _me_." The two cloaked figures who stood behind their leader shifted slightly, almost like they were physically hurt by the display of disrespect of their leader. Either that or their were preparing to grab their weapons.

"Easy Naoko, Hideaki his question was fair if a bit ill manured. You may call me Toshihiro of the Breaking Chain. Now go Uchiha, we will call upon you when you are needed." That last statement caused Madara's rage to flare up again, but he quelled it quickly and opted to just leave with his own version of a teleportation jutsu and just faded from existence.

As soon as Madara had left, Itachi who was now standing upright, went of offer his thanks but the cloaked figure now identified as Toshihiro turned to him and spoke first. "You don't need to thank us Uchiha as we did not save you just as a turn of good will. You are needed and as such it was in our best interest to keep you alive. Now leave, we shall shadow you for a while to make sure that you are not followed." And with that said and done, Toshihiro and his two followers disappeared into the remainder of the trees.

Itachi looked around perplexed at the odd turn of events before turning around and walking into the forest, he needed a place to rest his wounds and tired body, and fast.

**Flashback End**

Itachi had no idea what it was that Toshihiro and the others wanted from him, but for the time being he was happy for their intervention.

"And next time Madara. I will be more then ready to face you. I may not be a Konoha shinobi any more, but I will still do everything in my power to keep my family and the village I love safe. And if that means devoting my life to being their protector from the shadows and devote my life to killing you… then so be it." Itachi declared before finally allowing his exhausted body and pain filled mind to succumb to the rest he so needed and rightfully deserved.

Konoha Academy the next day

Naruto quickly jumped up off the ground and wiped the trickle of blood away from his mouth with a tail before snarling darkly at his opponent. He wasn't even sure what had started this fight, but he was certainly not going to lose. He was surrounded by almost every student at the academy, some eaging the fight on while others, such as Hinata, were telling both boys to calm down and stop.

The young boy that Naruto was currently fighting was the son of the clan head of the Inuzuka Clan called Kiba. Kiba was causually dressed in dark greyish-brown cargo pants and a grey hooded coat while he wore blue sandals on his feet. His eyes were black and slitted and his face had the usual purple'fang' markings painted on each cheek.

The clan had a running tradition of fighting and living alongside a canine partner, and many of their jutsu were derived from this partnership and more often then not require both Inuzuka and their canine partner to perform. Kiba's partner was a small wolf/dog pup called Akamaru and was a perfect amalgamation of a wolf's strong hunter frame and a dog's quick moving joints. His coat was a greywhite and was just under a foot tall.

Now Naruto respected the Inuzuka clan, they were both powerful and very loyal to Konoha and the Clan Head Tsume Inuzuka was definitely someone Naruto liked as she was one of the council members who supported him at his announcement. But her son, Kiba, just irritated the hell out of him. When Kiba and Akamaru first entered the academy grounds Naruto could fell a strange feeling well up inside him, an age old instinct began to act up as his nose caught the scent of dog.

At first he was able to control the strange urge to both run and attack Kiba and Akamaru, but as soon as Akamaru began to bark at him he began to feel himself losing to his primal instincts. And when Kiba insulted him and all kitsunes as a species, that's when Naruto lost it. And the rest was a blur up until this point in the fight.

"Ha! Not so tough now are you, you stupid fox! Come on Akamaru, lets get him!" Kiba declared before rushing forward with his canine partner.

Growling darkly at his two opponents, Naruto watched carefully as they both ran towards and around him, obviously hoping to surround him and attack from both sides as seemed to be the main strategies of the Inuzuka attacks. If Naruto didn't have his three tails to both defend and attack with he would seriously be outclassed. Not only was it extremely difficult to fight both dog and master but Kiba's fighting style was far superior to his own. Being both an actually style instead of his own flurry of strikes and was also designed to work with his partner.

Noticing Kiba step closer to him, Naruto lunged and attempted to punch his teeth through the back of Kiba's head. But Kiba just paused slightly from his advance to knock the hurried punch away before throwing a nasty right hook to the side of Naruto's face. Yelping in pain as was struck by yet another punch, Naruto used his tails to flip himself upright before landing allowing him to skid safely to a stop.

"Is that all you have! Akamaru could beat you all by himself!" Kiba's constant berating was really starting to get on his nerves and he was tempted, very tempted, to just unclench his fists and strike with claws instead. But he knew that no matter how out of hand the fight got he couldn't just go and kill him. But there was no reason why he could use some of his illusion techniques.

Flashing through a quick sequence of handsigns, Naruto focused within himself to draw out the necessary blend of chakra for his jutsu. Unfortunately for him, his Yokai chakra was just as difficult to reach as always and allowed Akamaru, who had used Kiba's last attack as a cover for sneaking around Naruto, to lunge forward and clamp his jaws tightly around one of Naruto's tails.

Yelping in pain at the attack on his tail, Naruto quickly used all of his strength to flick his tail down slamming Akamaru into the ground, hard. Akamaru yelped loudly as consciousness was quickly taken away from the young pup, Naruto didn't know why but even as Akamaru lay unconscious he still felt deep down inside him that he was a threat and needed to be eliminated. It felt weird, an instinct to both run and to fight. From what Naruto had read in his book, kitsune's were natural enemies of dogs as dogs had always been used to hunt kitsunes. But this feeling was just out of control, it was clouding his thoughts and judgements, urging him to take out Kiba and Akamaru. Forcing him to act just to survive.

Luckily Naruto was able to keep himself from further injuring the little wolf/dog pup when he was distracted by Kiba's cry of outrage. "You… You bastard! You hurt Akamaru! I'll get you for this!" Both boys lunged towards each other, neither fully understanding the power driving them both to fight as they each launched a solid right hook at the other.

Luckily for Naruto this time, not only was he faster then Kiba in terms of overall agility but Kiba's semi-inraged state caused from seeing his partner injured allowed Naruto's fist to connect first. With Naruto's great natural strength Kiba went flying back from the blow to the jaw, and landed hard as he skidded and rolled across the ground.

"Now who's pathetic you stupid mutt!" Naruto could see that Kiba was recovering quick from the punch and began to prepare the illusionary technique that he attempted before. Only this time he was easily able to grab onto the demonic chakra within him.

Hinata didn't know what to do. One minute Ino, Naruto and herself were talking about the Uchiha massacre, her and Naruto consoling Ino who was in tears about her crush Sasuke's death. And the next Naruto and some new guy and his dog were fighting each other. She was quite the pacifist herself, which is why she enjoyed some of the painless immobilising techniques of her Gentle Fist style, and seeing the pointless brawl before her was quite upsetting.

"N-Naruto-kun, please. P-Please stop f-fighting… I'm s-sure he didn't m-mean those t-things he s-said… please s-stop." She begged her best friend. Small tears falling from her face as she witnessed Naruto almost break Kiba's jaw with a monstrous punch.

Naruto's ears twitched suddenly, the small sound amplified a thousand fold by his enhanced hearing, causing him to lose concentration of his jutsu for the second time. But it wasn't the sound of his best friend's voice nor what she said that caught his attention, it was the sound of her crying.

The one thing that brought Naruto the most happiness in the world was when he could bring a smile to his best friend's face and hear her angelic laughter. She was his best friend, the most important person in his life, and he loved nothing more then to make her happy and see her smile. And upon hearing her tears and her plea Naruto was able to force back the survival instinct and actually think about what he was doing.

Glancing at his hand to see the blood on it from when he struck Kiba, something snapped within his mind and he fully realised on how pointless the sudden brawl was. Turning back look at his friend, he instantly felt an onrush of guilt as he saw the salty tears running down her beautiful face. _'What did I do this for? Why did I have to do this? Fighting for no other reason then a gut feeling? This is the sort of thing that the villagers see me for! How can I prove to them anything if I go around having random fights!'_

Naruto wasn't able to dwell on his thoughts for too long as his ears quickly picked up on the sound of movement behind him. Instinctively spinning around, Naruto growled viciously as he thrust another fist forward, aimed at Kiba's gut who had jumped up high and was aiming a punch straight to Naruto's head.

Before either of the blows could meet a small explosion of smoke appeared either side of the enraged pre-teens, two hands emerging from the smoke and stopping both attacks. Everyone that was watching and cheering the fight on quickly scattered when Iruka and Mizuki were revealed as the smoke cleared.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka! Fighting within the academy grounds is strictly forbidden, and fighting a fellow Konoha shinobi is a serious crime! Both of you are to stay back after class finishes and Mizuki and I will discuss your punishment!" Pushing both boys apart Iruka glared down upon them, obviously very pissed off that they were fighting on the third day of the academy.

"Both of you should be ashamed of yourself, you especially Naruto for going so far as to attempt to use a jutsu on a fellow student. I expected more from both of you." Iruka said in disdain before heading inside the academy while Mizuki stayed behind to make sure another fight would not start.

Naruto looked downwards as he walked over to his friends, his ears flattened down like a scauled puppy as Kiba silently ran to his canine partner. Neither of the two boys even glancing at each other let alone apologising.

"N-Naruto-kun… Why d-did you fight h-him? He b-barely did a-anything apart from s-say some m-mean things. I um… not s-saying what he d-did was right… but I-I thought you w-were n-no longer hurt b-by what people said?" Hinata voice was caring and gentle, but it seemed to have a certain edge to it, a reprimanding edge.

Instinctly shrinking down slightly in a submissive way at her tone, Naruto moved a tail up to her face and gently wiped away her tears. Unknowingly causing a small blush to appear on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Hinata-chan… I don't know why I did, for some reason I just felt deep down inside that I had to fight him just to survive. I will go an-" Naruto didn't even get to finish his apology before a hard wack to the top of the head knocked him to the ground.

"Naruto you baka! How can you be such an idiot? Now everyone probably thinks that your going to bash up everyone who says even the slightest thing wrong about you! And what do you think Kiba's mother is going to say when she finds out!" Ino screamed at the almost KO'd form of Naruto lying on the ground before her. Almost completely forgetting her sorrow because of his embarrassing and childish actions.

The punch to the head in truth really hurt and the real reason he always stayed on the ground after Ino hit him was because he didn't want another wack. Naruto also paled slightly at the mention on how angry Kiba's mum would get, he had only been in her company a few times and she could be almost as scary as his big sister Anko.

Jumping up suddenly hoping to apologise to Kiba in hopes that he wouldn't tell his mother, Naruto froze when his nose picked up a very familiar scent.

Ino and Hinata watched in interest as Naruto began moving around oddly, shifting his head up and around as he began sniffing at the air. His ears also twitching as he scanned for whatever had caught his nose. Dropping down to all fours he began to more swiftly along the ground as he followed the scent.

Ino personally always found these moments quite funny as he would always more resemble an animal then a person when he was tracking things. Hinata however thought it was the cutest thing in the world, and could easily watch him for hours.

However, both girls froze when they heard the word that left Naruto's mouth when he located his target and glanced in its direction. "Sasuke..."

Naruto stood up in shock and was quickly flanked by Ino and Hinata as they both followed his gaze and looked out the main gate of the Academy. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Sasuke walked around the corner and stood underneath the great stone arch, his gaze fixed on Naruto, his expression unreadable.

He stood their in the same cloths Naruto had last seen him in with his hands in his pocket and his uncaring and detached face unmoving. If Naruto hadn't been able to smell his scent and hear his heartbeat and breathing, then he might have thought it was a ghost.

Naruto couldn't believe what he was seeing, Sasuke was killed by Itachi when he slaughtered the clan. And yet here he was, standing at the archway to the academy, smirking like usual at him. He didn't know what to think, but his tails began to wag happily as excitement of seeing his friend alive quickly built within him.

Hinata was just as shocked as Naruto, although Sasuke wasn't as much of a friend to her as he was Naruto, she still considered him on and was deeply hurt when Naruto had told her what happened by Itachi's hands.

Ino just stood their shivering as tears fell freely from her eyes. She had been so emotionally crushed when she heard that Sasuke and the Uchiha clan had been wiped out. And yet here he was, standing before her very eyes. She couldn't even hope to contain her emotions and burst out into a sprint, she didn't care if he never returned her feelings, she was just happy to see him alive.

All three children called out Sasuke's name joyously as they bolted over to him. Sasuke predicted such actions and uncharacteristically smiled as he saw them run towards him, waving back to them. He wasn't however, prepared to be tackled by Ino and clung too as she cried into his shoulder. _'I really hate fangirls… but at least its nice to know I was missed.'_ Attempting to remove Ino from his arm Sasuke grunted in response to Naruto's multitude of questions that he began blunting out a hundred miles an hour. All of them seeming to get louder and louder as he jumped around excitedly, his voice filled with happiness and disbelief.

"It is good to see you too Dobe. And it's good to see you still cause move problems then ever, although just by looking at your moves your still no match for me." Sasuke answered smugly trying to get a rise out of his hanyou friend. While still trying to remove Ino from his arm.

"What! Whatever Teme! I could kick your arse from here all the way to the top of the Hokage Mountain!" Naruto's enthusiastic rise at his rival and friend ended abruptly when a single sensible question entered his mind. All three of his friends stopped and stared at him as his tails slowed and his ears lowered and flickered slightly, obviously indicating that a thought was worrying him.

"I… I'm sorry Sasuke… I tried to stop him, I tried with all my might… but he was just too strong… I couldn't save them."

Sasuke knew well of Naruto's need to protect everyone he knew. And knew just how much he must have been and still is hurting for not stopping Itachi. But he had something to tell his friend, something that he knew would make his pain go away. In a way though, he wished that someone had a way to remove the pain from his own heart. Because despite the fact that Itachi had let his mother live. He still felt great pain from the family he did lose.

"Don't worry about it Dobe, their was nothing you could do. Although, I do know you tried. So on the half of my clan though, thank you Naruto Uzumaki for trying." Sasuke then proceeded to bow slightly in respect to Naruto. Both Naruto and Hinata were stunned by Sasuke's actions, and even Ino let go of him in shock. In all the time they knew him, Sasuke had never shown much respect to anyone let alone bow to them. For any Uchiha they always considered it a blow to their own pride to lower themselves to anyone else.

"So um… how did you survive?" Silence pervaded around the four children for a few minutes as they knew Sasuke would need time to sort himself out to answer such a question. Each one of them had been hurt deeply by Sasuke's supposed death and each for different reasons.

For Ino it was because of the immense crush she held for him, for Hinata it was because she was a very kind and caring person and hated to hear of anyone dying especially friends. And for Naruto it was because after Hinata, Sasuke was his next best friend and the death of anyone would always hit him hard. Especially since Naruto blamed himself for the death of the Uchiha's for not stopping Itachi.

"I will announce to the whole of Konoha the results of that night… But I will tell you now Naruto. But first-" He said while taking out two envelopes out of his shirt pocket and handing them both to Hinata. "-I must give you these Hinata-san. One of them is addressed to your father, as he and the Uchiha clan need to speak with him about urgent matters. While the other is for Iruka-sensei." Hinata had no idea what he was talking about, but nodded her head silently.

"Now, dobe, if you can manage to follow me without beating up anyone else along the way I have a few people who need to see you."

Everyone didn't know what to say, Sasuke seemed so different, so changed. They knew the murder of his entire family would have a big impact on him, but this was just uncanny. It was almost like overnight Sasuke's 'Uchiha Arrogance' had left him completely, leaving him almost… nice. Although he still used his insulting 'nickname' of dobe for Naruto.

And with that said he quickly took off, leaving the Academy and heading for the Uchiha Compound in an impressive burst of speed. Speed that Naruto quickly matched by racing after him on all fours.

"Please tell Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei that I might be late Hinata-chan, Ino-chan! Thank you!" He said as he quickly sped off after his friend. Both Ino and Hinata though, were still so shocked at the revelation that Sasuke was still alive that they both didn't even bother to try and answer the disappearing hanyou.

While Naruto hadn't properly seen which path Sasuke had taken through the forest surrounding the Uchiha Compound he could easily follow him by following his scent. Naruto had no idea who wanted to see him or who Sasuke was leading him to his family's home. He actually thought Sasuke would never want to come back to such a place after what happened, but then again Sasuke hadn't seemed his normal stuck up self since he first saw him.

Dashing quickly to the side as he smelt Sasuke's scene change direction, Naruto shielded his eyes as the emerged from the dense forest into the clearing of the main entrance to the Uchiha Compound. As his sharp eyes adjusted to the light he begun to stand up normally, as tears began to form in his eyes at what he saw. Before him, in front of an open main gate, was a gathered crowd of at least 30 Uchiha clan members.

His eyes quickly dashed around, checking the faces of each member before him. Most of them he recognised as the Uchiha members who didn't hate him and some he hadn't met. Their were a few members that really stood out, such as some of Sasuke's immediate cousins and to Naruto's joy he could also see Sasuke's mother Mikoto amongst the crowd that was all smiling brightly at him.

"H-How… What happened? I d-don't understand… you should all be d-dead…" Naruto stuttered as he slowly moved towards the smiling Uchihas. His shock only redoubled as the entire crowed all bent down on one knee and bowed respectfully to him.

"Perhaps I should explain since your too much of a dobe to understand." Sasuke said sounding more like his usual self as he ushered Naruto over to his family. "Itachi told you the reason he wanted to kill his family, he told you that he wanted to test his new powers. But he lied, it was all a cover up so that he could leave the Uchiha name untarnished. So that he could cover up our dark past." Sasuke practically spat the last sentence, displaying his growing hatred for his past family's deeds.

"But… I still don't understand… why did he do it? And what was he hiding?" Naruto was too overcome by his own shock and joy at seeing the familiar faces amongst the gathered members to properly comprehend the situation. And even tackled Mikoto and hugged her affectionately in disbelief that she was real.

"Our family committed many crimes Naruto-kun. Crimes that he didn't want the rest of Konoha to know about." Mikoto answered while hugging the now crying hanyou. "Our clan had planned to kill the Hokage and take over Konoha. But he spared those who didn't know about this plan because of you Naruto-kun. You saved us." Mikoto elaborated while stroking his head motherly.

Naruto may have been too shocked to understand properly but that part he understood perfectly. Causing all sorts of emotions to flood his already confused mind.

"What? Why would you all plan that? How could you all plan to do such a thing? I still don't understand!" Naruto accused while jumping back out of Mikoto's hold, shifting backwards in case the need to run arose as various confusing thoughts plagued his mind. The Uchiha clan he knew were arrogant yes, and wanted nothing more then to be known as the best and greatest. But to go so far as to plan to take over Konoha was just too much for the hanyou to comprehend.

"It was not any of us here Naruto-kun. All of us were spared because we knew nothing about these plans or didn't support them in any way. My son Itachi, was so loyal to Konoha that he would be willing to kill his own family for the village's safety. Something none of us could ever bring ourselves to do." She paused for a split second as a single tear fell from her eyes at the memory of her eldest son. She loved her sons more then anything else in the world, and the thought of what he must have been going though in his final moments in Konoha broke her motherly heart.

"He never believed in or followed the growing arrogance of our clan. He believed that our status and respect should be earnt through our actions and not just through our possession of the Sharingan Bloodline. He chose to have the village see him as the bad guy so that our clan my live on, and through us prosper and live the way we should have always. Thanks to him the village will never know of what the rest of the clan had planned and thanks to you Naruto-kun, the Uchiha clan will be better then ever before, living by your ideals." She finished bowing once again to the still confused hanyou.

"But how? What did I do? I almost got killed trying to stop Itachi? How did I do anything?"

"Itachi had no idea on how to save his clan and the village dobe. But you gave him the idea in your fight, that not all of us had to die. And it was from that idea that he went on to let us live, he wanted the clan to grow strong and live as equals with the rest of the village, and to protect it just how he did and how you strive to. He gave his honour for us to live on and make a better clan, one without the arrogance of the last. You risked your life to protect us, and as a result of that almost got yourself killed. But you also saved all of us, and for that I and the whole of the newly reformed Uchiha clan once again thank you." Sasuke then once again bowed low, and again alone with the remainder of the Uchiha clan.

Although Naruto could have sworn that his ears picked up Sasuke muttering, 'Yer but your still a dobe.' playfully under his breath.

Naruto looked around in shock as the entire gathered crowed began clapping for him and cheering his name. He hadn't thought he had done that much, in fact he thought himself a failure for not stopping Itachi. But it seemed now, thanks to him, that he had help save many lives. He was the reason the Uchiha clan still stood, and he was the reason that they would live on, and pull away from the dark shadow of their past.

The Uchiha clan would now prosper, and through them the whole of Konoha. And they would forever honour Itachi's sacrifice for them. But most importantly to Naruto, he had found furthered his goal even more, not just in preventing the deaths of everyone he cared about, but also how they viewed him. The Uchiha Clan would forever stand with the Uzumaki clan, and never would any of them view him as a monster but as their saviour.


	20. Chapter 19: Graduation

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Okay, I was _SERIOUSLY!_ not planning the chapter to be this long and as such I have not included the Mizuki Incident in this chapter. I appologise for my lack of ability to shut the hell up. Anyway on with the latest chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plotline and characters in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 19 – Graduation

Claws clashed against open palms as the two combatants faced each other once again. Both scanning and analysing their opponents body movements, watching and waiting for a hint to their next move. In a fight such as this one wrong move could immediately shift the tables of the battle in favour of the opponent and as such needed every ounce of concentration and focus.

Observing his opponent preparing to dash forward for a frontal assault, Naruto shifted his weight onto his back leg to prepare to block the incoming palm strike while he used two tails as balance on the ground if the chance arose to counter.

Neji's superior observational powers thanks to his Byakugan easily noted the shift in stance of his opponent and altered his hand angle accordingly. Dashing forward Neji ducked under Naruto's attempt to slash at him and planted a well aimed Gentle Fist strike into his stomach. Smirking confidently as his attack did notable damage to his opponent Neji began to follow up with a few finger point strikes to the Chakra Points around Naruto's stomach and chest, lowering the chakra flow in that area.

Naruto yelped in sudden pain as he felt Neji's chakra enter his body and slow his chakra. The Gentle Fist style was far superior to any other taijutsu style in Konoha as it could essentially completely cut off a person's chakra with just a few well placed strikes, and as such Naruto knew he had to avoid anymore hits. Leaning back and using his two tails for balance to avoid one of Neji's strikes Naruto used the overbalance caused from such a miss to whip out with his third tail.

Neji had no time to dodge being so close and took the full force of the blow and was knocked back a few good meters by Naruto's unnaturally high strength and almost had the wind knocked out as well. Flipping over and landing upright, Neji suddenly squinted for a split second as his Byakugan eyes adjusted to the massive increase of chakra from Naruto. Observing the pattern of the red chakra growing from the centre of his stomach and out towards his hands, Neji could easily tell that Naruto was preparing one of his fox fire jutsu.

Naruto gave a large jump back as he watched Neji sail away from the strike with his tail and used this time to quickly reach for his Yokai Chakra. Quickly flashing though six handsigns Naruto forced the chakra to his hands and watched as they quickly erupted in majestic blue flames of his fox fire.

"Kitsune Art: Muliple Fox Fireballs Jutsu!" Naruto smirked slightly, making his elongated canines visible, as he watched approximately fifteen small blue fireballs fired from his hands in quick succession. This particular variant of his basic fox fire jutsu was developed with help from the Uchiha clan a year ago. Utilizing the basics they taught him of their Pheonix Flower Jutsu, Naruto was able to change its flames to use his Fox Fire flames instead.

Neji's eyes widened in surprise at the number of blue fireballs that were quickly approaching him, he had known Naruto was going to use a fox fire jutsu but this one was not expected. And having just landed safely on his feet Neji knew their was no way he could dodge all of them, an assessment made by the sheer area those fifteen fireballs covered. Noting Naruto's confident smirk Neji focused more chakra to his Byakugan eyes, he was not going to lose!

Lowering his stance to a more defensive footing Neji quickly forced chakra to emit from every part of his body as quickly as he could manage without hurting himself. Waiting until just before the fireballs struck he began to rapidly spin while keeping his hands extended straight out.

"Ninja Art: Rotation!" Neji was spinning so quickly that all the emitted chakra begun to whirl around with him, creating a perfect chakra shield to fend off the approaching fireballs. The Rotation was an advanced Byakugan technique that was only taught to the members of the main branch of the Hyuga family, but with Neji's natural genius he was able to replicate it without the need for instructions. Something that angered the Hyuga Elders immensely.

A loud explosion erupted as the flames made contact with Neji's chakra shield, the extreme noise forced Naruto to quickly cover his ears. Neji, who was completely unharmed thanks to his Rotation save for light burns on his finger tips, used the smoke and dust storm created from the contact of both jutsu as cover as he quickly dashed right, readying to flank Naruto.

As soon as the loud explosion had stopped Naruto quickly released his hands off of his fluffy red and white ears and used them to hear for traces of Neji's movements. But it was too late, in the split second Naruto had been distracted by the explosion, Neji had run almost completely next to him. Lowering his stance, extending his arms both infont and behind him and quickly forcing more chakra to his eyes, Neji smirked as he watched the images of the Eight Trigrams, of which the structure and style of the Gentle Fist was created to work with, appeared before his Byakugan. The Eight Trigrams appeared before Neji as four circles of directional seals, each seal symbolizing the compass directions, utilizing these patterns and formations he could easily use one of the most dangerous and advanced techniques of the Hyuga clan. And of course it was another advanced technique that was only taught to the main branch that Neji had learnt by observation.

"You are within my field of divination. You have lost Naruto. Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms!" Neji quickly lunged forward and struck Naruto square on with two Gentle Fist finger strikes. Spinning slightly on his back leg, Neji flowed forward and around Naruto as he struck out with two more finger point strikes cutting off more and more Chakra Points. This number doubled each time he struck, gaining more and more speed as the strikes increased until Neji's attacks were barely visible to the naked eye. Naruto would have attempted to throw Neji away with his tails, but as more of his chakra was cut off the less his body could move, and Neji knowingly and wisely cut off the chakra to Naruto's tails first.

As with a lot of bloodline related jutsu, the world around Neji seemed to slow down before him as he further and further utilized his family's prized jutsu. Finishing off the last of his strikes with a further enhanced hit to the chest, Neji gracefully returned to his family's stance while Naruto was blasted away from the intensity of the last palm strike.

Naruto ungracefully tumbled and rolled as he slammed harshly into the ground, his body refusing to respond and obey his command as exactly sixty-four Chakra Points had been closed off, almost completely shutting down all major chakra pathways. So he just lay their, motionless as he awaited the inevitable. He couldn't move, he had lost. His ears remaining the only part of his body that would move, twitched and shifted their direction as they picked up on the sound of clapping.

"Alright that's enough, Neji-kun wins this round. You did very well you two, an excellent display of ability and just the sort of desire to win I would expect from you both." Hiashi said with evident pride as he approached the two boys, deactivating his Byakugan eyes that he was using to study their movements with. Hizashi and Hisano stood next to him, both of them glowing with pride at their son's sheer ability and natural talent. Hinata and Tohru had been watching as well but they ran to assist Naruto as soon as Hiashi called the fight.

"A-Are you okay N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked with genuine worry as she searched his face for any signs of discomfort. She knew personally on how much having your chakra blocked off can hurt.

Doing the best he could to ignore the pain it brought, Naruto slowly tilted his head enough to see his best friend. "Nah. I'm okay Hinata-chan. Just can't believe I lost again, damn that jutsu!" Amidst the rasps and wheezes in his voice, Hinata could easily detect his disappointment in himself. She knew that if her father hadn't called the match in Neji's favour then her crush would have tried to stand up and continue. He just didn't know when to give up, something that she admired about him greatly.

"Hang on one sec little brother and we will have you moving again." Tohru said cheerfully as she began to strike his closed off chakra points, opening them once again.

As Naruto lay motionless while his sister restored his movement, Hinata took the time to once again admire her best friend. Over the last three years that they were at the academy Naruto had finally reached some kind of growth spurt, and had grown a whole foot now reaching 162cm at only the age of fourteen. His hair had grown just a little longer and reached just past his shoulders and seemed to be a lot less wild then it use to, seeming more smooth and well… fox like as it got longer. His tails had also gotten quite long over the past few years, now almost reaching half his height in length. Although he still hadn't grown a fourth one. Overall he had just gotten more handsome over time, something that just made her crush on him grow.

As Naruto lay grumbling on how he was going to wipe the floor with Neji in their next spar he noticed his best friend looking at him oddly, remembering on how concerned she always got for him when he got hurt he just assumed she was worried. Smiling brightly at her in reassurance that he was fine he watched as her face turned bright red before averting her gaze from him.

'_Damn that smile of his. It is always so wonderful' _Hinata thought to herself as she desperately tried to focus her mind on something other then the handsome hanyou lying on the ground in front of her.

Naruto would have chuckled at his best friend's weird antics if his throat still wasn't responding. Even after all these years he had no idea why she would randomly go red in the face or faint. He had asked Tohru about it once before if she was sick or something but his response was a simple spoken word of 'Idiot' with a wack on the head. And whenever he asked Hinata about it she would always just faint on the spot. But he really didn't care though, as long as she was his best friend forever then he would never care about silly little things like that, although it did make him worry that she might some day hurt herself if she fainted onto something sharp.

Still looking at his best friend as his head refused to move again, he had to admit that she had changed almost as much as he had over the last three years. While she was no where near his height her beauty was simple unmatched and she had developed more into a woman then anyone else their age. Her hair was even longer and her face was flawless, completely unmarred by the harsh training of the Hyuga clan. Her body was well defined and womanly, not to mention her chest gave Tohru's a run for her money.

Naruto often found himself beating off boys in the other classes that would constantly hound his best friend for a date. She would always decline their offers politely but sometimes they wouldn't listen and that's well he and his claws got involved. He didn't know why but he had been getting strangely possessive of his best friend recently and oddly hated the idea of all those stuck up jerks from the academy touching her.

He really didn't know why he was being possessive, but for some reason he just felt that Hinata was _his_ friend and that no one else should spend any time with her. It really worried him that he thought that way, and found it even weirder that he didn't seem to have a problem with Hinata spending time with other girls, as he only felt possessive of her when their were other boys around. He knew such thoughts were very wrong and had looked in his book to find any reference to it being a Kitsune instinct or something. But so far, had found nothing bar a few titbits of information that didn't seem to make any sense to him.

Sighing mentally at his little problem Naruto impatiently waited for his big sister to fix up his chakra network. He always hated it when he lost to Neji and this time was no exception. Originally he had been pretty even with Neji, but when Neji graduated from the academy a year ago and was placed in a squad of two other newly appointed ninja and a sensei, he had started to learn far more then Naruto could learn on his own. Even with help from his sisters and Hinata he still seemed to get his arse handed to him. But that only motivated him more.

Hiashi waited patiently for Naruto to recover and wander over with Hinata before he explained any hints he could to improve there fighting styles.

"Right, now while both of you fought very well I did see a number of areas that needed improvement. Neji-kun, while your Gentle Fist strikes were perfect and your footwork flawless, your attacks were too predictable and to focused upon. Hence the reason Naruto was able to knock you away with one of his tails, try to focus a little more on defence and don't always rush to attack." Neji nodded his head in acknowledgement of the constructive criticism before leaving with his parents to prepare for the day.

"Now Naruto-kun. Last time I checked your style of fighting you were more aggressive in your attacks and I told you to tone it down a little, however this time you focused far too much on analysing your opponents movements and that was your downfall. Try to find a balance between attacking and defending and remember 'Impatience and overconfidence on the battlefield will lead to mistakes, but hesitation will lead to death.'." Naruto grumbled a bit at the advise, more because he was still pissed off about losing then anything, before bowing slightly in both acknowledgement of the wisdom and in respect.

"Good, now I believe it is probably time you and Hinata-chan head off to the academy. I, and the Hyuga clan wish you both luck in today's graduation exam. Although I think you will be both be fine regardless." Since Hitomi had died Hiashi rarely ever smiled, but upon looking at the faces of the two children before him he couldn't help but grin as the pride built inside him at the excited looks they both shared.

"I don't tell you two often enough, but you make both make an old man like me very proud. You Hinata-chan, you look almost exactly like your mother, both possessing her beauty and her caring heart. And you Naruto-kun, you have grown into a fine young man despite the prejudice the village has shown you. Both of you will make fine shinobi of Konoha." And with that said he bent down and uncommonly hugged both teens before again wishing them well and heading inside the main house.

Naruto chuckled slightly as he turned to his best friend, the excitement virtually radiating off of him as he began bouncing up and down childishly. "Hehe, you ready to kick some arse today Hinata-chan! We are going to get the best scores since Itachi."

Hinata giggled at his enthusiasm and felt it best to just nod in agreement to his statement, despite the fact that she knew both of them would never be able to beat Itachi's records as they even had to give him extra tests to try and keep him at the academy longer so he wasn't a ninja at such a young age. "Yes, I b-believe we will both d-do very well t-today. I… I-I just h-hope that we are b-both on the s-same squad." Although she looked just as happy and excited as Naruto, in truth she was very worried. She had spent so many years with him and didn't want to imagine how she would feel if they were on separate teams. _'I would just be too lonely without you with me Naruto-kun.'_

"Ah don't worry Hinata-chan. The Old Man knows that we make a good team together and it would be stupid of him to change that. Besides-" He said with an evil smile forming on his face. "-He still owes me big time to keep my mouth shut about that time he fell for my last prank." Hinata couldn't help but giggle as she recalled the events that took place that day. Notable she thought the prank was a bit inappropriate and could have seriously hurt someone, but it was still funny.

"Ok N-Naruto-kun, I shall t-try my best today. And knowing t-that we will be o-on the same t-team will make m-me work even harder." She still wasn't completely sure that he had that kind of pull on the Hokage that he could guaranty it. But the thought itself, of spending her whole ninja career on her crush's team, was certainly reason enough to ace the graduation tests today.

With that said the two best friends hurried off together, waving goodbye to Tohru who had been quickly tending the gardens around them after fixing up Naruto. "Good luck you two. I expect both of you to come back tonight with Leaf Shinobi Headbands!" Tohru happily called out to her little brother and Hinata before returning to her duties for the day.

At the Konoha Academy

The whole class was in a state of uproar with the amount of excitement that was practically bursting from each individual in class A-1. Various topics of conversation were being hurled from one side of the room to the other as everyone discussed the main points on everyone's minds: Who was going to pass? Who was going to be on who's team? And who was going to finish with the highest grades for females and males.

Naruto's ears flicked frantically as they scanned around and listened in on the various topics as his head was practically stuck in his book on kitsunes. It had taken a lot of practice to be able to read and interpret conversations, but it was definitely well worth the time. And according to what he could hear most people thought that either Hinata or Sakura would be the two top girls. Although more were leaning towards Hinata because of her outstanding scores in the practical teachings such as taijutsu sparing, weapons training and ninjutsu. Whereas Sakura only really had high marks because of her near 100% score on all things theory and logical, such as the written exams and strategy games.

While Naruto didn't like Sakura for what she did to Ino, he didn't really dislike the girl as she seemed to be pleasant enough to him. Unless of course him and Sasuke were having their regular 'try and outdo each other matches' in which case half the class turned against him while the other half turned against Sasuke. So overall he could tolerate having her win in the girls. Although he would of course much prefer his best friend to win.

"Hey Hinata-chan." He called as he brought his face out of his book. "It seems that everyone thinks that you will get the highest score out of the girls. Maybe even the whole class." He exclaimed excitedly while trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

Hinata's face lit up like a red light bulb in embarrassment at such a claim. She couldn't doubt that she was skilled in a few areas, but she would never have imagined everyone held her in such high regards. Most everyone in the class tended to stay away from her, especially the girls as they knew of her 'attachment' to Naruto. So she would never have thought such a thing at all.

"O-Oh no Naruto-kun… I couldn't p-possibly. I'm no w-where near as talented a-as Sakura-san or I-Ino-san." It may have sounded little weak to hear, but it was just how Hinata thought. She always placed others before herself in all regards even in terms of strength, it was just a part of her kindness and her modesty. _'Although it is a nice thought. Father would be so proud if I got such high marks.' _She thought happily to herself, a small grin appearing on her face. Although that grin quickly disappeared and her eyes widening in shock as she felt one of Naruto's tails move around her waist and pull her closer to him.

Naruto felt his friend tighten up as he pulled her with a tail, but he just fobbed it off thinking it surprised her. Nor did he notice the ever increasing blush on her face as he pulled her almost close enough to touch noses. "Your being too modesty again Hinata-chan. You and I both know that your stronger then almost everyone here." He said with a big smile. Although sadly Hinata only heard the first sentence before fainting at the sheer proximity she was to her crush. Particularly his face.

"Huh, Hinata-chan… Hinata!" He shouted as he shook her gently. "Urgh… fainted again." With careful practice Naruto manuvered his best friend back into her seat with his tails, and gently placed her down before sighing to himself.

Ino who had been observing the cute interaction from the seat next to Hinata practically with hearts in her eyes at the scenario, giggled to herself as she watched Naruto desperately try to once again figure out why his best friend always faints.

'_God he's such a dense idiot! I swear if Hinata-chan didn't ask me not to tell him I would have painted it across his stupid head and all three tails!'_ She just couldn't believe that those two had been friends for so long and he still hadn't figured it out. If it wasn't for her crush on Sasuke and her respect from Hinata then dammit she would have gone after the blond hanyou too, except she would have actually told him by now! Although she couldn't help but find their interactions the cutest things in the world to watch, and they just wouldn't be the same if Naruto knew how his best friend really felt.

Naruto was pulled from his worry about Hinata when his nose caught the scent of dog. _'Ugh… now Kiba the Mutt and his mutt are here too.'_ Although he mulled over the thought of setting up a quick prank the weird gurgle feeling in his stomach that he had been feeling all morning made him decide against it. He wasn't sure what it was but it sure didn't make him feel healthy.

Kiba hadn't even rounded the corner to enter the class before he could hear the low toned growl from within and steeled himself for a fight. Although he and Naruto were on more 'friendly' terms there were still often fights between the two them. Usually over a random insult that one of them said about the other.

'_Man if I get in another fight mum's gonna kill me. And the bratty fox.'_ Although when he entered the class he was thankful that it wasn't him that Naruto was growling at, but rather Sasuke.

Naruto was standing on top of his desk, growling and staring at Sasuke who sat two rows infront of the hanyou with a big smirk on his face. "What'd you say you bastard? There's no way! No way in hell that would ever happen! Take that back!"

Sasuke just sniggered at his friend. It was way too easy to rill the hanyou up but that didn't make it any less fun. "I don't take it back dobe. Unless of course you could prove me wrong." He said with a teasing yet superior sounding tone. He always used that particular tone when he messed with Naruto's head. He was hoping that Naruto would try and prove him wrong as he had a good amount of money on it. Sadly Naruto was far too unpredictable and chose to try to maim Sasuke instead.

"I'll make you take it back teme!" Naruto yelled before jumping from his desk preparing to tackle his Uchiha friend and beat the living hell out of him. Once again he never stopped to think that Sasuke was just messing with him again. Sasuke had spun around in his seat quickly, as to prepare to block the incoming claw slash but smirked when he saw a snake suddenly dart out from the corner of the room.

The dark purple and brown constrictor hissed happily as it darted towards the hanyou in mid air, wrapping itself around its target and squeezing tightly. Naruto's eyes widened in shock at having been suddenly bound in mid air. But the snake's familiar smell eased the surprise.

"Hah I thought I could smell horrible dango oneechan. You're about the only one who eats that disgusting stuff so I should have known it was you." Naruto wheezed out as the snake began to choke him. Everyone in the room who wasn't running in fright at the snake and its sudden appearance, followed the body of the snake until they met a purple haired woman wearing basically nothing but a tan trench coat. The snake was coming out of the sleeve of the coat and everyone wasn't sure whether to be disturbed or interested. The later was mainly in the guys case of course.

"What! Dango's the best thing in the world! How dare you say that you little brat!" Anko screeched at her little brother before mentally ordering the snake to squeeze harder in response to his horrible insult to her favourite food. Luckily for Naruto however, the snake had never tied his tails and he used the three of them to bash the snake over and over till it released its hold.

Choking and gasping for air as he hit the ground the whole class wasn't sure if they should help him or run from the crazy lady that tried to kill her own 'brother' with a giant snake. And it was this scene that Iruka and Mizuki walked into the room to witness. Both of them shock there heads and sighed in unison. In all the time they had been teaching, they had never had a more… eventful class as they had whenever Naruto was present.

"Anko-san, I would appreciate it if you didn't scare our students. If you wish to spend some time with Naruto-kun you will have to wait until after he has finished class." Iruka said while trying desperately not to stare at Anko as she spun around quickly to face him, clearly revealing under her trench for just a split second.

"Aww, but I love to mess with the little gaki. And if I can't mess with him… well I could perhaps play with you little Iruka-kun." Anko said seductively as she 'snaked' towards the young instructor, almost circling him like a predator before its prey. She didn't really mean what she said, but it was _really _fun to watch the man squirm uncomfortably as she began to press against him.

Iruka hadn't ever had much female contact over the years, and as such didn't really know how to act in situations such as these.

"You know Iruka-kun-" Anko whispered like liquid honey into Iruka's ear. "-I have quite the array of weaponry at my house, and not all of it I use for killing my enemies. Could you perhaps guess the use for the rest?" She finished up her sentence by leaning in closer to him, practically breathing on his lips as she spoke. "If you can't guess, perhaps I should show you." With that last part said, Anko just shifted her trench a little to the right, giving him a full view of what was underneath.

She couldn't resist the urge to burst out in laughter as Iruka suddenly passed out as a trail of blood quickly shot from his nose. Her mirthful laughter was almost immediately joined by Naruto, who found her rather perverted joke on Iruka quite funny also.

"HAHAHAH! Nice one Anko-neechan! He dropped faster then Sasuke-teme when I showed him my _better_ transformation technique! That was awesome!" Naruto cheered from his spot on the floor as he rolled around laughing loudly. Most of the class was utterly alienated at the scene that had occurred and had no one had any idea how one minute you could go from being chocked by someone, to cheering them on for making their teacher pass out by a few perverted methods.

Sasuke however was shooting vicious glares at Naruto, he had made the foolish hanyou swear to never tell a soul about that particular incident, and Naruto was seriously pushing the boundaries with that comment. Ino was just shaking her head in embarrassment at actually knowing Anko, while Hinata was busy burying her head in her jacket at the actual action. Mainly because Anko had tried to persuade her to do the same trick to Naruto to get his attention, something she certainly would never have the confidence to do.

"Hehe, I know hey. I think it was a little overdone but it got the right results. Anyhow,-" She said while virtually appearing in front of her little brother, ruffling his hair and ears playfully. "-I should leave you and the rest of your class to their exam. I expect you, you little furry gaki to pass the graduation exam with flying colours. You too Ino-chan and Hinata-chan, I expect all three of you to pass. And if you don't-" She said while pulling a kunai from her sleeve and licking the length of its blade. "I'll just have to give you more training." Anko smiled giddily as she noted the paled faces on her three favourite little academy students before disappearing in a burst of smoke.

"Hmph… stupid sister always trying to kill me." Naruto muttered to himself as he dusted himself off and ran back to his chair next to Hinata. And of course on the way he had to smack Sasuke in the face with one of his tails as he walked past.

"S-She isn't r-really going to m-make us t-train with her a-again if we f-f-fail will she?" Hinata asked quietly, quite scared of the thought of more training with Anko. While she quite liked the woman and respected her talent as a kunoichi, Hinata really did fear the woman's harsh training regimen. Naruto just shrugged to her question, not sure whether Anko was trying to torture them mentally or physically as she was just as unpredictable as he was.

Mizuki coughed slightly to get the classes attention, he had already moved the passed out Iruka to his chair and had sat down beside him. And regardless on whether or not Iruka was out of it, they really did need to continue with the graduation exam.

"Right everyone, as you all know today is the day of the final exam. After today, all of those who pass with atleast seventy percent will be awarded a passing grade and will officially be registered as Genin Ninja of the Leaf Village. It has been my pleasure, and I'm sure Iruka-san would agree, to have taught you all over the last three years and I wish you all the best in your future as Shinobi of Konoha." With that said Mizuki gave a proud smile as he glanced at everyone in the class, before performing a short sequence of handsigns causing a written test paper to appear infront of each student.

"The first exam will be a written exam. There are fifteen questions and each question must be answered even if you must write that you don't know the answer. This exam is worth thirty percent of your final grade. You have exactly one hour to complete the test, you may begin… NOW!"

With the order given everyone flipped over their test paper and begun scanning its contents, some students started writing straight away while others preferred to read and re-read the questions.

'_Question 1: Name the past and current Hokages in the correct order and give a description of their basic techniques. Question 2: Describe what Chakra is exactly as in-depth as you can and provide three examples of its use.' _Hinata read mentally to herself, so far the questions seemed quite easy and her confidence in her ability to answer them skyrocketed with each one she read. Although when she read the last three questions, the ones that were worth the most marks, she pale significantly.

'_Question 7: Your team is performing a C rank escort mission but you run into some trouble along the way when an enemy team attacks you. Your team mate and your client are both about to be hit by lethal jutsu at the exact same time. Your other team mate and sensei are incapacitated and no matter what you do you can only save one person. Your task for this question is to answer who you would save and give your reasons why. Remembering that if your team mate dies there is a chance that your team will be disbanded but if your client dies you will fail the mission.' _Hinata almost passed out at the question. It was horrible! Who in their right mind could just sacrifice one or the other. And she began to shake as her nerves built up on how to answer it.

'_Ok Hinata think. The rules of the shinobi code say that we should never abandon the mission and should do everything within our power to see them to success… But the teachings of the First Hokage say that we should never abandon our team mates. Oh what should I do what should I do!' _Hinata panicked within her own mind as she desperately thought of what to write. She knew that by the shinobi code standards she should sacrifice her team mate for the mission, but when she imagined herself in the exact scenario either having to choose to save Naruto or the client she knew in her heart what _she_ would do. She just hoped her reasoning was enough to give her a high enough score.

Naruto was having a similar problem with the last three questions although number seven he just wrote that he would do everything within his power to save both, even if it cost him is life. It was his life's dream to save everyone the pain of death, and if he had to give up his own life then so be it. His frustration at the ridiculous questions was easily seen and heard as he would continually tap the table with his tails. That is until Ino asked Mizuki if she could wallop him if he didn't shut up.

Overall the exam was fairly simple regardless of the morality questions at the end and when the end of the exam was called most everyone was fairly satisfied that they had scored enough to get a good percentage from the exam.

Iruka, who by this time had recovered, addressed the class outside towards the lake and training grounds. Naruto wagged his tails happily as they left the enclosed space of the academy building enjoying open spaces far more over enclosed areas, he was quickly flanked by Hinata who stood by his side as they waited for Iruka to give them instructions on the second part of the exam.

"Right everyone, the second part of the exam consists testing throwing ability and reflexes, your fighting ability will not be tested as we all have a good understanding of your taijutsu level from class spars. For this part you will all be required to throw 30 kunai or shuriken at the targets we have set up for you. While dodging blunted kunai that we throw at you." Iruka informed as he directed with his hands to 30 targets that had been scattered around the training grounds. Some targets were easy to hit such as the ones on the faces of the training dummies. While other, such as the ones _behind_ trees and boulders, were not so easy.

"This test is worth 40% of the total percentage of the exam." Mizuki spoke after Iruka. "The first person to start will be Shino Aburame, and we will select the next to go alphabetically. Now Shino, if you kindly step forward and hit as many targets as you can, as close to the centre as possible." Mizuki said while pulling out his notebook to record the scores.

Most of the class chose to wait patiently and just observe those who went before them while others, such as Naruto and Hinata, chose to talk amongst themselves and trade ideas on how to hit the more tricky targets. Well… In Hinata and Ino's case they were thinking on how to hit the targets, Naruto and Sasuke were more arguing with each other on who was going to get the better score.

"Whatever teme! Your not even going to get half of the targets! I could kick your arse easily!" Naruto yelled rather obnoxiously as he butted heads with his friend and rival.

Sasuke just placed his hands in his pockets as he continued to mess with his best friend. He knew that he was naturally better at throwing weaponry, thanks to his better vision even without his Sharingan, and he had an inkling that Naruto knew this too. But that didn't stop him from trying to rile his hanyou friend up. Even if he did sound a little arrogant when he did.

"You can talk dobe, you won't hit any let alone half. You'll get no where near me." Sasuke would never admit it, but he really did find Naruto's little tamper tantrums that he threw in just about every argument the most hilarious thing in the world, especially when his ears and tails would vibrate in frustration.

"Near you! NEAR YOU! I'll get twice your score using just my tails to throw them!" As soon as the words left Naruto's mouth Sasuke smirked. This was exactly the kind of thing he was waiting for.

"Your on." Sasuke said smugly. Naruto for his part was opening and closing his mouth like a fish, his brain was still in the argument and didn't fully process what Sasuke meant. Almost like he was thinking 'Wait… what?'. "Ok Naruto. Let me put it in a way that your minuscule brain can understand.-" Naruto growled at the insult but let it slide so that Sasuke would continue. "-If you can beat my score at this part of the test using just your tails then I will admit that your better at this then me. If you can't then that just proves that I am better doesn't it?" Sasuke smirked triumphantly when he saw Naruto's face. He had managed to outwit a fox, well it wasn't hard considering that you only had to rile him up even the slightest and he was easy to manipulate.

Naruto was fuming! He knew he wasn't as good at throwing things with his tails and Sasuke knew it! He wished that this part of the exam was a taijutsu battle because he would kick Sasuke's head in.

"Next up is Hinata Hyuga." Called Iruka from the other side of the training field. This of course caused Naruto to cease his rage filled mumbeling and run along to cheer his best friend on, after agreeing to Sasuke's challenge.

Hinata nervously stepped forward and positioned herself on the marker line where she had to stand to hit the targets. She had scanned the area completely before with her Byakugan and was confident that she would easily pass. But that confidence was quickly leaving her as she tried desperately to slow her breathing. This test… it was really getting to her, one small error and she would fail. She just couldn't cope with the fact that there was a possibility that she would not be with Naruto. It hurt her and broke her heart to imagine herself failing and it was this image that was destroying her self confidence.

She was brought out of her depressive thoughts when a very familiar voice rung in her ears. "Come on Hinata-chan, you can do it! Kick all of their arses! You're the best!" She had to giggle at his obsession with kicking arse, and it was this small comment along with the fact of who had said it, that reminded the hyuga heiress of a conversation she had with Tohru the day before.

**Flasheback**

Hinata and Tohru were sitting on the back porch of the main household speaking about something that had been worrying Hinata for awhile. She had spent almost all day in her mother's garden praying for guidance, but upon receiving not even a flicker of inspiration had sort out help from Tohru.

"Hinata-chan, you are very strong. There are very few girls your age with the skill that I know you have. You keep telling yourself that you are not and that you are weak compared to others, but this only lowers your confidence and causes you to make mistakes. You shouldn't ever give up, regardless of what the elders say. I thought by now that Naruto would have at least taught you that." Tohru said as she slowly sipped her tea.

"I-I know Tohru-san… I-I's just that I'm r-really worried. W-What if they a-are right? And I d-don't make genin t-tomorrow? I'll be separated from Naruto-kun then." Hinata said sadly as her head began to drop, her voice getting softer and softer as she spoke becoming almost a whisper by the end of her sentence.

"Oh is this what your worried about?" Tohru stated while laughing heartily. "Your just worried that you won't be on Naruto's team aren't you?" She asked while nudging the now blushing heiress. Upon receiving a small nob in agreement Tohru outstretched her arm and pulled the troubled teen closer to her, luckily Tohru remembered almost this exact same scenario happening to herself and knew just what to say.

"You know what Hinata-chan, you need to stop doubting yourself and start to act like the woman you are becoming." Her tone was quite harsh and it made Hinata snap up her head, almost like when she is lectured. And before she could bamble out anything Tohru continued in the same harsh tone.

"You need to stop worring about what everyone else thinks of you and only worry about improving yourself for yourself and not for others. Naruto may be quite dense to not realise how you feel about him, but what's stopping you from proving it to him. Show him that you are not just his best friend, but a woman worthy of being with him. Show him that you are a strong woman, grab his attention by being the best you possibly can be. Prove to him as he watches just how strong you have become!"

**Flashback end**

Such words may have been wasted and useless on anyone else, but to Hinata they seemed to hold a special meaning. She trained hard day in and day out since she could remember, trying to prove to everyone that she was worthy of being a Hyuga. But only to get knocked down by the elders of the clan who thought she was of sub par talent. But right now she couldn't care what the elders thought, even if she failed, right now she would try her hardest for _herself_ and for the hanyou she knew was watching her. She would prove to him that she was strong and worthy of the praise he would always shower her with.

'_Watch me Naruto-kun. See how strong I really am. Watch me.'_

As soon as Iruka issued the command to start Hinata jumped high into the air, focusing carefully on the places she had observed earlier she spun quickly, rapidly throwing the collection of kunai she held at the various targets. Focusing her chakra similarly to when using the gentle fist she used a small burst of chakra to slightly shift her position in the air before throwing several more. This small sequence continued three times as she fell slowly. Landing solidly in her families stance she immediately caught sight of the blunted shuriken and kunai being thrown by her senseis. Shifted feet and stepping back slightly Hinata bent incredulously backwards allowing the weapons to pass graciously above her, while at the same time grabbed three more kunai from the ground.

Snapping back up quickly, she launched the kunai quickly before spinning quickly to the side. Therefore not only dodging the new wave of kunai but also catching two of them in mid air. _'Thirteen already done, only seventeen to go. I can do it!'_

The crowd of genin hopefuls stood in silence as they watched the beauty before them literally dance around, under and over the thrown kunai and shuriken. The instructions were to dodge, and yet Hinata was twisting, snaking, bending and melding around them. It was like watching a ballerina or a butterflies flight. Her aim may not be have been the best, but her reflexes and inhuman flexibility was sure to make up for it.

Naruto couldn't smile brighter as he watched his best friend dodge kunai after kunai only to launch her own at the appropriate targets. He knew that she had been doing extra training for quite a while, but he had no idea that she had improved this much, it was almost like her Byakugan was active she just seemed to know where they were being thrown from. _'She's so beautiful… She's just like a real dancer…' _The thought was odd to him, but he was too mesmerised to even notice.

Breathing quickly as the adrenaline filled her veins, Hinata dodged the last of the thrown shuriken by bending almost to the ground before snatching the last four kunai of the ground. Pushing herself up with a boost of chakra Hinata rapidly threw the remaining kunai at the four hardest targets, the ones behind the two trees and twin boulders. She knew she needed another kunai to strike them and change their trajectory, but she hoped that by throwing them high into the air that they would fall onto their designated targets.

Everyone cheered loudly as Hinata landed gracefully at the same time the kunai struck their targets. They just couldn't believe the performance they had seen and those that had gone before her felt completely overdone.

"Well done Hinata. That was a very impressive display of reflexes, and you managed to score an amazing 27 targets! Thirteen of them were perfect bullseyes!" Iruka praised as he and Mizuki quickly wrote down the score and some notes, both of them very impressed with Hinata's performance.

At the announcement of Hinata's total hit count Naruto ran over to his best friend, shouting all sorts of praise as he picked her up and spun her around in a mini celebration. "You did awesome Hinata-chan! Even Sasuke-teme couldn't beat that! You kicked everyone's arse!" He cheered as he continued to hug his her as he spun around, completely ignorant of the bright red blush of her face and the evil death glares she was receiving from a majority of the female class members at the hug she was getting.

Iruka and Mizuki just chuckled at the sight before continuing with the other students, overall they were quite pleased with everyone's scores. It made them both quite proud as teachers.

"Sasuke Uchiha, your up next." Mizuki called out as he looked up from his notepad.

"Hmph, now to show you real skill dobe." Sasuke called while walking over 'cooly' to throwing line. Completely ignoring the squealing fan girls that attempted to throw themselves on him. He was pretty sure that he could get all 30 targets, but having not activated his sharingan yet he knew he wouldn't get a bullseye for all of them. _'But I will still get more then Naruto.'_

Sasuke just casually picked up fifteen kunai and waited until Iruka said to start. While he was no where near as graceful in his throws and dodges as Hinata, he was far more accurate and easily nailed each target with barely breaking a sweat.

"Amazing Sasuke! You hit every single target! And only six of them weren't bullseyes!" Iruka called in amazement. He always knew that Sasuke had inherited the Uchiha's talent. Sure he wasn't as good as Itachi, but he definitely had the potential to be an excellent ninja.

Naruto was furious, but he tried his hardest not to show it. Which became especially hard when Sasuke walked passed him and dropped a small comment. "Hmph, beat that dobe."

"Naruto Uzumaki, your up next." Iruka announced happily. Dispite the number of pranks Naruto pulled on him, he found himself quite attached to the teenage hanyou. They often spent afternoons after class eating ramen together and joking around, almost like brothers. Although Iruka did know to keep his distance as Naruto's sisters were very possessive of him and stated quite plainly that they weren't going to share.

Naruto carefully analysed the targets before him before carefully lifting six kunai, two with each tail. As he did he noted that the strange gurgle in his stomach returned, but he focused the feeling away, he needed complete concentration so that he could beat Sasuke.

Iruka and Mizuki just sighed in unison at Naruto's actions. They both knew it would be far harder for him to throw them that way, but they also both knew that it was probably to beat Sasuke. Those two just always seemed to try and outdo each other.

As soon as Iruka said go Naruto followed Hinata's idea and jumped high, with his natural strength he was able to jump a solid 20 meters into the air, easily allowing him to locate his targets and fling his tails in their direction. And upon landing he easily weaved around the thrown kunai before picking up six more kunai, he even used his tails to batter away a few of the kunai.

This process continued until Naruto had successfully thrown all the kunai, but he knew just by the last jump he made that his shots weren't very accurate, and he had to question his sanity at agreeing with Sasuke to do such a challenge.

"Well not exactly what I expected of you Naruto-kun as you once again try to show off. But never the less even with your tails you managed to hit 22 targets, six of them being bullseyes." Naruto lowered his head in shame at his score as he slowly dragged himself over to his friends, his tails leaving a trail of dirt behind him as they too had sagged in shame. "Next time Naruto don't be so eager to beat Sasuke ok?" Iruka offered as he tried to uplift the hanyou's fallen spirit.

Hinata ran over to her crush and tried her best to consol him while Ino went to have her go. She knew that he was upset at getting just an average score and really didn't know how to make him happy again. "D-Don't worry N-Naruto-kun. I'm sure you w-will get a better s-score on the n-next part, you are v-very good at n-ninjutsu." She said reassuringly. But Naruto paid little head to her words although he did thank her for the complement.

The class was directed back inside as the last part of the exam consisted of a display of the three jutsu that was taught at the academy. The Replacement Jutsu, which switches the user with an inanimate object of similar size to the user. The Clone Jutsu, which creates an illusionary copy of the user. And the Transformation Justu, which transforms the user into any envisioned form with an illusion.

The process of selection was similar to the last exam, ordered by last name. So Naruto spent a good few hours threatening to burn Sasuke to a crisp if he didn't shut up about beating him in the last exam.

Almost as if it was timed by the gods, Sakura Haruno entered the classroom wearing her new leaf headband around the back of her head. Unknowingly saving Sasuke from having to defend himself from fiery hot blue flame. "Hey look Sasuke-kun! I got my headband, I'm a ninja now." She shrieked in a girl lone that she only seemed to use when trying to get Sasuke's attention. "Oh and Hinata-san it's your turn."

Hinata paled slightly but her confidence didn't falter one bit, she needed to do this and she would leave today as a ninja of Konoha. "Good luck Hinata-chan! I know you can do this." Naruto said cheerfully, suddenly completely forgetting he was about to send Sasuke through a wall.

Hinata nodded her thanks with a small blush before rushing out of the class an into the examination room. She was quite confident that she would get 100% on this part as the jutsu themselves weren't very hard to perform. Especially for a Hyuga as they are trained to have the finest chakra control in all of Konoha, so small jutsu that required little chakra were a cinch for them.

Nervously knocking on the door, Hinata slowly entered the room when she heard Iruka call her in. She quickly walked to the centre of the room and awaited his say so to demonstrate the jutsu. She did find it a little odd that Mizuki wasn't in the room with Iruka but didn't think it was of any importance.

"Alright Hinata, when your ready you may begin. You can show any of the three jutsu in any order." Nodding her head shyly in acknowledgement, she quickly performed the three hand signs needed for her first jutsu.

"Ninja Art: Clone Jutsu!" At the announcement of the jutsu a very small pulse of chakra burst from Hinata, causing four perfect illusionary copies of herself to appear beside her in a puff of smoke. Iruka quickly praised her performance with a complement on how little chakra he felt used for the jutsu, causing her nervousness to fade slightly as she performed the next technique.

"Transform!" In a burst of smoke Hinata was revealed to have completely changed her form to that of Iruka. Coping his image perfectly with the illusion.

"Excellent job again Hinata. I always knew you would ace this test. Now for the last technique I want you to replace yourself with that spare seat over there." Iruka said while motioning towards the back corner of the room.

Now this jutsu actually required a little bit of concentration, it was simple to perform but very easy to mess up. It was also one of the most used techniques of all ninjutsu as it allowed the user to replaced themselves just before being struck by weapons or jutsu, potentially saving their lives.

As she gathered the correct chakra and molded it correctly with the right hand signs, Hinata held her breath tightly as she felt herself being pulled quickly to the chairs location and could have sworn she felt the chair pass through her as they exchanged places. It was always an interesting sensation, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. Such a jutsu would soon become second nature to her.

"Excellently done Hinata! You have passed the graduation exam with flying colours, getting a total score of 92%." Hinata could barely control the emotions that burst from her and was almost reduced to tears when Iruka passed her her leaf headband.

'_After all this time, after all the training. I finally did it! I'm finally a ninja!' _Hinata uncharacteristically took a page from Naruto's book and jumped in excitement, she didn't know why but she just needed an outlet for the sudden joy that flooded her system. And she just couldn't wait to show Naruto and her family, they would be so proud of her!

Thanking Iruka for all of his help and teaching over the last three years, Hinata quickly ran out of the class as she tied the headband around her neck. She wasn't ever an impatient person but she just had to show Naruto straight away. _'Maybe he will even give me another hug.' _She thought to herself with a giggle. Although a strong voice brought her out of her oncoming daydream.

"Ah Hinata. It is good to see you have passed, I knew you would have. Congratulations!" Mizuki said from behind his student, freighting her at his sudden appearance. "I'm sorry I wasn't at the last part of the exam for you, I was just being shown by the Hokage the planned teams for those who pass." This immediatelty caught Hinata's attention as the only thing she wanted more then to become a genin was to be placed on Naruto's team. And whether or not it was his personality rubbing off on her but she was incredibly curious on what the planned teams were.

Mizuki immediately recognised the face and knew what Hinata was going to ask him, and he almost felt bad in what he was going to say. The key word being _almost_. "Now these planned teams may still change if someone we didn't think would fail, fails. But as of now they are concrete. I'm really sorry Hinata, but… but you didn't get put on Naruto's team. I know that's what you really wanted."

Hinata's eyes widened with shock and she felt her heart skip a beat. She couldn't believe it. After all this time, after everything she had done, even after passing the graduation exam, everything suddenly felt meaningless now. It was her life's dream to spend every minute of her life with Naruto, and yet now he was being placed on another team she may not even see him once a month. She would never get her chance to tell him on how she felt and it broke her heart. She could even fell tears form in her eyes, it just wasn't fair!

Mizuki smirked deviously as he watched the heiress before him virtually crushed by his lie. He needed her to be vulnerable for his plan to work, he had spent too long on it to fail so he simple said words that would go straight for her heart. Hiding the smirk behind his teacher façade once again, he placed a hand on her shoulder as a means of comfort before continuing his plan.

"Don't cry Hinata. The Hokage owes me a few favours and I'm sure that we can have something arranged. The only matter is the grades you got for your last retrieval exam. If we could pull that mark up with a special test then maybe… nah, it won't work. Don't worry Hinata, I don't want to get your hopes up… I'm sorry for bringing it up." He said before slowly turning away, and counting in his head waiting for the reaction that he knew would come.

"No w-wait Mizuki-sensei! P-Please! I'll do anything, a-any extra tests. A-As long as I'm on N-Naruto-kun's team!" She begged as she ran after her sensei. She knew that she sounded like a love-sick puppy and she felt ashamed that she was begging, but Naruto was everything to her. Without him her life just held no happiness, she needed him to live.

Mizuki just smirked once again not turning around to look at the teen behind him, everything was coming together. "Alright then Hinata. If you want to try then I will show you the special exam." _'Foolish love-sick girl. She is just what I need to finally get my hands on that power!' _He thought evilly to himself as he led Hinata to one of the unused classrooms to explain the extra 'test' she would need to complete.

All this time hiding as a teacher, all these years he spent planning were finally coming together. He would get that power even if he had to kill everyone in the village to get it.


	21. Chapter 20: Betrayal and to Protect a Lo

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

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**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Right, now here is the next chapter of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel. I actually quite liked this chapter, regardless of the fact I thought the last half was written poorly.

Originally this chapter was quite different by my sister didn't like it so I re-wrote it. She is FAR happier with this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however, own any original plotline or characters in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 20 – Betrayal and to Protect a Loved One

Naruto could _not _contain his happiness and joy that burst from him as he fired off various fox fire jutsu's into the sky as a sort of self celebration. He had passed the graduation exam and was officially a ninja of Konoha! Just one step closer to reaching his goal. And he could not stop admiring his new leaf headband tied firmly around his forehead.

In the process of nearly getting singed Sasuke, who had also passed, yanked on one of Naruto's tails to get his attention.

"Would you shut up dobe! We are all glad you passed but aren't you worried that you're going to burn the village to ash if you keep that fire up." Sasuke stated in an irritated manor, sure he could tolerate his best friend's slight eccentrics but sometimes it just got annoying when he got to loud.

"Oh sorry Sasuke I think I got carried away." Naruto replied while sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. His tails moving in front of his face to denote his slight embarrassment.

As all the parents of the other class members came to collect their children and take them to various restaurants as a celebration, Naruto nervously looked around for any sight of his best friend. He had expected her to be waiting for him so they could celebrate together but it seemed he was mistaken.

Mizuki who had been waiting for Naruto to pass, smirked as he watched the hanyou search for his best friend. _"Hehehe, this is all just too easy." _He thought maliciously to himself before walking over to the stressing out hanyou. "Hey congratulations on passing Naruto. Me and Iruka both knew you would, although it was odd that you performed the second part of the exam with your tails. Still trying to beat Sasuke eh?" Mizuki asked in his cheerful teacher façade.

"Huh? Oh yer the bastard dared me too. Although I wish I didn't listen because now he's probably going to get the highest score overall." Naruto answered in a disappointed voice, his ears and tails falling at his own self irritation. He perked up when an idea came to mind.

"Hey Mizuki-sensei, have you seen Hinata-chan? I can't find her anywhere, and I can't smell where she went either." Mizuki laughed mentally at this, he knew the question was coming and now it was time to set the second part of his plan into motion.

"Yes I did actually. After passing her graduation exam she dashed off in quite a hurry, I asked her where she was going and she told me that she just needs to quickly get something for another member of the Hyuga clan that they asked for and asked if I could tell you to wait for her at the Hyuga's main house." Naruto frowned slightly at the relayed message, it was very odd of his best friend not to wait for him for anything. Something just didn't seem right, although he gratefully thanked Mizuki for telling him and wandered off to the Hyuga compound regardless.

Mizuki waited until Naruto had fully left the academy grounds before disappearing in a quick burst of speed. With Naruto out of the academy he would not be able to pick up Hinata's scent and it would be awhile before he actually went looking for her. Which was the exact time Mizuki needed to set up his part of the plan.

Hyuga Compound – Main House

Naruto nervously began to pick at the hairs in his tails as he waited for Hiashi to finish with a clan meeting. He had come to the main house to wait for his best friend, but that was _FOUR_ hours ago and he was really starting to lose it with worry.

'_Hinata-chan said she would be back after just quickly getting something. What could be taking her so long?' _Naruto thought frantically while practically ripping big patches of hair off his tails. It was sort of like a nervous habit he had picked up in the last year, a painful one at that.

His ears twitched suddenly as they detected the sound of light footsteps and he quickly dashed out of the family room to meet Hiashi at the hall entranced. Hiashi had been in a meeting with the whole clan, asking on who requested the help of his daughter to help find out where she might have gone. As Hinata's disappearance had the whole clan worried.

Hiashi jumped slightly, startled by Naruto's sudden appearance infront of him. But seeing the worry in the boy's eyes Hiashi knew why he was so lively and just how Naruto must be feeling and he could also see how much he needed to know of Hinata's whereabouts. Sadly and worryingly to him as well, he had no idea.

"I am sorry Naruto-kun, but it seems that no one in the whole clan asked Hinata-chan to get them anything. I'm afraid that something has happened to her." He didn't want to say it like that as he knew exactly what Naruto's reaction would be, but Hiashi knew Naruto needed something, even if it wasn't what he wanted to hear.

The words froze him and immediately his mind began to make up all sorts of bad things that could of happened to his best friend. He had always had this worry, ever since Hinata was kidnapped by that Cloud Ninja Naruto had always worried that something might again happen to her. She was his most precious of people and his best friend, everyday as far back as he could remember they had been inseparable. They did almost everything together and were always by each other's side.

But the idea of Hinata missing, of not being near him, of perhaps being in great danger scared him more then anything in his worst nightmares.

Hiashi, seeing Naruto's reaction to such news and how much it affected him, if the fact the hanyou's whole body was shacking was anything to go by, reached down and placed his hands on the young teens shoulders to help calm him down.

Naruto could barely tell what was going on around him, his only thoughts being centred on his best friend and what horrible things could be happening to her. He had been so excited about passing and he knew that Hinata would have passed as well… but now everything seemed meaningless.

Amidst his turmoil of thoughts and emotions, Naruto could feel a tug at his mind, a pull of thoughts. Similarly to when he felt his animalistic instincts play up. However this felt different, because almost like it the instinct spoke to him he could hear its calling.

_Save her… Find her… She is a part of you… Find her… Find her…_

Naruto could almost feel his body move on its own accord, urging him to action. He didn't know why and he couldn't control he just knew, he knew that he needed to find her and save her. He could feel it within him, Hinata needed his help.

Before he could fully understand these feelings and emotions raging within him however, he felt a foreign object touch his shoulders and being in a confused state of mind lashed out from instinct and went to bite the object. That is until he awoke mentally enough to realise it was Hiashi's hands.

Having been shaken from his instinctual thoughts Naruto quickly realised that a great deal of yokai chakra was flooding his system and appearing as red spiral flames around him. His body had already begun to absorb the dark energy and he felt the changes in his muscular structure and appearance, and most of all he felts its bloodlust. The bloodlust, the urge to kill and annihilate everything around him would always overpower his senses whenever he used his kitsune chakra like this.

After all these years he had learnt to 'Funnel' the yokai chakra immediately after access into his kitsune jutsus. However he still hadn't mastered using it to replace his own chakra and because of the fear he always held that someday something would go wrong and the chakra itself would take over he doubted that he would ever learn how to use it for anything but his jutsus.

"Naruto! Calm down! You let your emotions control you too much. You need to stay calm so you can help find Hinata-chan." At Hiashi's words Naruto's mind snapped back to reality and he forced himself to resist the dark urges and primal instincts of the chakra and suppress it. The flames quickly stopped and Naruto's body returned to usual, his eyes once again returning to their ocean blue.

"You forget too often Naruto-kun that your yokai chakra is powered by your feelings. I know you feel about Hinata-chan missing but you really need to stay calm to help okay?" Hiashi commanded sterly, slightly shaking the young hanyou's shoulders in emphasis.

"But… But I need to find her. I want to help look for her." The worry building up inside him could easily be heard in his voice. But so could a level of conviction, conviction to find his best friend no matter where she was, a look and sound that Hiashi recognised as one his dear wife use to have whenever the clan elders spoke against the branch family or against him, the look to defend and protect the one they loved. Naruto's immense worry was caused from his love of Hinata and it was this love that Hiashi could see burning brightly within Naruto's eyes.

Hiashi smiled mentally at this, he had an inkling that such a thing would appear within the hanyou's heart eventually and was glad to see that his daughters feelings might be returned soon. Even if the hanyou before him still couldn't identify the emotions himself including why he felt such an urge to find and save Hinata. However, such things would have to wait till later.

"You can help Naruto-kun, but you need to stay calm. I have already organised a search team of the best and strongest Hyuga. Our eyes will find her quicker then almost anyone else, but I will also require your strong sense of smell to guide our eyes." Hiashi paused to reach into his kimono and withdrew a small scroll before continuing.

"But first I need you to take this to the Uchiha clan, give it to Sasuke, he and those from the Uchiha clan he chooses will follow you to a point that we will meet up and begin searching." Handing the scroll over to Naruto, Hiashi's face turned dark and his expression almost murderous.

"Now go Naruto-kun. Let us find my daughter and keep her safe. And if anyone is responsible for her disappearance they will find out the real meaning why the Uchiha and Hyuga clan are the strongest in all of Konoha."

Naruto nodded quietly as he took the scroll from Hiashi. Normally such a face that he was seeing on Hiashi would scare him, but he was sure he too held sure a look as he thought about what he would do to another person that took Hinata.

Knowing on what he needed to do, Naruto quickly felt for the residue yokai chakra from the flare up just moments ago, and withdrew some reeds from his trouser pocket as he utilized the chakra to change to his fox form. Obviously mastering it better then three years ago, his full fox form was now the size of a large dog and he could move at far greater speeds in this form. Which is exactly what he needed.

As his transformation completed Naruto gave a quick bark before dashing through and out of the main Hyuga house. Agilely and gracefully weaving through and past the furniture like only a fox truly can, his three tails flourishing behind him. _'I will find you Hinata-chan!'_

The only thing that seemed to distract him from his rather focused thoughts, was the ever increasing gurgle and slightly painful feeling in his gut. Something that he was sure he recognised.

Hokage Tower – Upper Vault

Silently activating her Byakugan eyes once again, Hinata utilized the 360 degree vision with the ability to see through walls and objects to quickly scan her entire surroundings. Not a guard or sentry in sight. She thought it odd that somewhere like the Hokage tower was so lightly patrolled but it did make her task easier so she thanked her lucky Naruto-shaped stars for such fortune.

Quickly dash from the room she had entered in, Hinata continued to scan with her Byakugan as she raced down the seemingly endless while marble halls of the tower. The place felt so empty and it gave her the creeps, she was so use to entering the tower and being warmly greeted by the various staff and the Hokage that this complete void of life gave the whole place a graveyard feeling.

Glancing at the small map within her hands as she approached a flight of stairs she noted that the room she was after was exactly two floors down, past three doors on the right and was the final door on the left after the hallway past the three right side doors. Using the telescopic ability of her Byakugan she was able to confirm that it was indeed the room she was after by seeing through the floors.

'_Without my Byakugan this test may have been really hard. And I will have to thank Mizuki-sensei for giving me a map even though he wasn't suppose to. After this I will finally be on Naruto-kun's team!' _She squealed in delight at the thought before quickly silencing herself as the sound reverberated down the hallways of the tower.

She had to admit that she was very nervous.

Before she had entered the tower she was shacking wreak, but Mizuki had reassured her it would be an easy task and that it would guaranty her chances of being put on Naruto's team. It calmed her nervous mind but it also brought up questions on why the particular extra exam was so hard and why it had to be down at night. Admittedly though she just thought it was to help emulate a proper mission scenario.

And the mission scenario was a fairly simple one, infiltrate the hokage tower, take a particular jutsu scroll called the Scroll of Sealing and bring it to a default rendezvous point where Mizuki will meet her. All to be done without being seen. Simple sounding, but extremely difficult to perform. Or… so she thought until she found that there was practically no one in the tower.

Feeling it best to just quickly get the mission over and think about its difficultly later, Hinata just rushed down the stairs to the correct floor and headed to the appropriate room. After all, she wanted to finish this soon so she could celebrate her's and Naruto's graduation at the Hyuga estate. And she was really excited about telling Naruto on what she did in the extra exam.

Finally running as silently as possible down the last hallway Hinata slowly walked up to the door to the room she was after. In truth it looked quite aged, their was dust all over the woodwork carving of Konoha's leaf symbol and the doorhandle itself appeared quite dirty and a little rusted.

Looking at the door handle she quickly noticed the small open space directly under it, a fairly long but thin rectangular slot. The exact slot that Mizuki had mentioned to her, apparently it was the lock.

Rumaging through her jacket pocket she withdrew a small card with various shaped holes through it. She definitely wasn't very talented in the art of chakra detection but she still could detect the slight trace of chakra running through the various inked lines it had decorating it. And apart from that her eyes could see the chakra easily. _'Perhaps the lock has some sort of seal?' _She thought nervously to herself.

She had been told of the infinite traps and jutsu that could be activate by such seals and this only seemed to make her already shot nerves only increase, almost to the point where she was shaking too much to even insert the card. Although when she thought about Naruto's happy face when he hears that she would be assigned to his team, that hesitation almost immediately vanished and she inserted the card.

A loud cluck and grinding of gears was heard as the lock seemed to test various aspects of the inserted card, before with a slowly low grinding sound, swung open to allow Hinata entrance.

She practically jumped for joy as she dash in the room, her nerves were slowly getting the best of her so instead of really observing the old, dusty, musk smelling room she just quickly located her target. A rather large scroll about half her height called the Scroll of Sealing and bolted back out of the door. She could barely contain her excitement as she clutched the scroll tightly while running down the hallway, and even more happy when she heard the sound of the old door grinding to a close behind her.

However, in her excitement and thrill of almost completing her test she had deactivate her Byakugan eyes, and hadn't detected the person at the other end of the hall as she ran up to the stairs. That is, until he called out to her.

"Hey! Who are you? And what are you doing here?" A random patrolling guard called out to her. He noticed the strange girl jumped at his command and that she didn't stop climbing the stair when he addressed her. "HEY COME BACK HERE!"

Hinata was practically shitting herself. She was suppose to complete the extra exam without being seen, and here she was being caught after just completing the hardest part. Intent on not letting the 'exam guard' catch her in hopes that she would still pass, Hinata quickly charged chakra to her legs and took off up the stair as fast as possible.

Reactivating her Byakugan to check the guards location, she began to panic as she watched him begin to run up the stairs after her.

'_Oh no! What am I going to do? He's going to catch me and then I'm going to fail… I just… I just hope he doesn't know which way I go once I get up to the top.' _Hinata panicked to herself while running down the various hallways, not really trying to lose him but just more to quickly backtrack her way out as fast as possible.

Just outside the Hokage Tower, next to the academy Naruto virtually flew about the ground in an amazing display of speed. With his body and tails lowered almost to the ground and his ears tucked back, he was able to move at speeds far faster then he normally would. One of his key likes about his fox form.

But another key like, was that his sense of smell and hearing were increased even more then usual.

A huge dust cloud suddenly erupted in the middle of the street as Naruto suddenly skidded to a halt. His interest and thoughts were completely consumed by the sudden scent that he had picked up on. Slowly backtracking and sniffing along the ground Naruto's head shot up as he confirmed the scent. He had found Hinata's trail.

Suddenly forgetting about his task to get the Uchiha's help, Naruto took off in the direction of the scent. Intent on finding his best friend as soon as possible.

Hinata jumped for joy as she finally arrived at the clearing that Mizuki had told her to meet him at. It was a fairly closed in area fully surrounded by dense forest, and had a small under-maintenanced wooden shed to one side. Dropping the scroll she had retrieved against the shed's wall, she slumped down to both rest and calm her nerves. As the trip to the clearing had been quite exhausting on her as she didn't stop running as soon as she had left the tower. _'At least the guard didn't catch me. I may still pass after all'._ She thought to herself as she attempted to regulate her breathing.

When she had calmed herself down enough Hinata began to observe her surroundings, admittably she was a little worried when her Byakugan couldn't pick up any sight of Mizuki but she just figured he hadn't expected her to finish the test already.

Speaking of the now completed test, now that she had the time to think about it their was just something about it all that didn't make sense. Cause when she actually thought about it, everything in the exam could have been simulated at the academy easily. And why did she have to wait until night to take the exam?

Glancing at the large scroll beside her she had to wonder why Mizuki chose such a large scroll to use for the exam. She expected it to be just a small handsized blank scroll, but looking at this one with her Byakugan, she could see a vast amount of chakra stored within the very writing of the scroll.

"Oh no! What if this isn't the right one! It says Scroll of Sealing but why would Mizuki use a full scroll?" Curiosity about its contents and worry that it might be the incorrect scroll and that she accidentally grabbed something important overwhelmed her better judgement as she reached for the scroll to see what was actually written within.

Imagine her surprise and shock when the first thing that greeted her eyes was a vast array of complex and very high level jutsu, almost all of them either forbidden jutsu or classed as too dangerous for any applicable use. "W-What i-is this? A-All o-of this s-shouldn't be o-on a sc-scroll for a test! This i-is a v-very i-important scroll… And I-I accidentally st-stole it!"

Hinata started sweating bullets as she quickly dropped the scroll and jumped up, almost like it burnt her to touch. Even just glancing at the first few Hinata knew she had accidentally taken something that could get her in a lot of trouble. The scroll contained jutsu and documentation of the current and past Hokages. Taking such a village heirloom was definitely a serious crime, one that she could no-doubtably get in significant trouble for.

'_Oh what should I do? If I take it back and someone catches me, they will think I was trying to steal it! And if I don't take it back someone else will definitely take it! Oh what to do!' _Amidst all of worry on how much trouble she was going to get and how much decrease she might bring on her family, Hinata's key worry was still on failing the exam. As she _had_ grabbed the wrong scroll.

Thinking of the exam however caused a thought of solution for her accidental problem. She would simply wait until Mizuki came to check on her progress with the extra test and she would explain everything to him. Hopefully he might be able to help her convince the Hokage that it was an honest mistake.

Deciding that was the best course of action she bent down to roll the scroll back up, but as she did a small title grabbed her attention: **Advanced Chakra Manipulation Theories**. Normally titles such as this would scare anyone off as the reading of the theories themselves would be an absolute bore. But to a young Hyuga constantly trying to improve herself such a title was very tempting to read, as their entire fighting style was practically just chakra manipulation.

She wasn't sure if it was her own desire to improve herself or if Naruto's insatiable curiousity was rubbing off on her, but she found herself slowly unrolling the scroll to read that lecture. _'I feel like I really am stealing… But I'm sure a quick peak wouldn't hurt anyone.'_ Admittedly she did feel kind of guity for opening it, and she couldn't really reason such a thing to herself. But the prospect of showing the elders something to impress them that she had learnt on her own, and Naruto's face when she showed him something to be really proud of her was just too enticing.

Approximately one hour later Hinata stood in her families fighting stance ready to collapse. Her legs shook as they strained to keep her standing and sweat was pouring off of her tired and exhausted body. The chakra manipulation exercises that were described in the scroll were quite odd, but Hinata had never imagined that they would be this taxing on her body. The techniques described were hard enough to just understand, but actually following them and attempting to perform them was just far above her current skill.

Sitting down suddenly next to the scroll to read a bit more and rest her aching body, she jumped slightly in freight as she her a sudden voice behind her.

"Ah, I see you managed to succeed in the test. Congratulations Hinata." Mizuki said from a few meters behind the Hyuga heiress, a smug smile on his face as he lent against the aged shed.

Hinata quickly realising it was her sensei, quickly snapped up the scroll and ran over to him, desperately trying to explain that she had accidentally grabbed the wrong scroll and that she might get in trouble for the one she did take.

"Oh, I see. Well I should be able to correct this at once, but you do realise that you may lose marks for grabbing the wrong one. Because remember, if you are on a real mission to retrieve information, wrong information can be disastrous." Hinata's head fell at this, she had thought that this might happen. She just hoped that she didn't lose too many marks that the whole point of the extra test would be fruitless.

Mizuki smirked evilly when he saw the forlorn expression pass over the young girls face. This just made his plan even easier. "Don't worry Hinata. Just give me the scroll and I'll take it back and explain everything to the Hokage. I'm sure he would understand and still take into consideration the extra marks you received for this test." Mizuki reassured while still using his 'teachers' voice.

Hinata was ecstatic at hearing she would still pass and rushed to hand the scroll over to her sensei. It was understandable that she would wall for his entire scheme, cause after all, he had been her teacher for three years now and it was unfathomable to think that he could have possibly set her up in any way.

As soon as the scroll had touched his hands Mizuki yanked it from Hinata before shoving her to the ground. His face no longer holding any sign of compassion, his teacher façade gone completely. He had the first of the three things he desired and now it was time to take the second.

Hinata cried out in pain as she struck the ground hard. Frightfully looking back up at her teacher, her eyes begging for some sort of explanation to his odd behaviour. She felt cold fear grip her heart as she witnessed the change in his expression, he had always been a kind and caring sensei, but the face she saw before her was one of murder and power hungry craze.

"M-Mizuki-sensei, w-wh-whats going on? W-What's wrong?" She whimper in fright as she began to scramble backwards as she watched her teacher pull out two kunai, all the while glaring murderously at her.

"Hehehe, you have been a very naughty girl Hinata. Stealing so willingly the village's most treasured jutsu scroll from the Hokage himself! That immediately makes you a wanted criminal of the village!" He burst into a manatical laugh as he watched the eyes of the confused and frightened girl before him widen in realisation at what he said.

"And the punishment for such a crime is death! One that I will deal to you immediately, because now I have the scroll all I need is your powerful eyes and a little something from your monster friend that you _love so much_!" Stressing the last part as a sort of insult Mizuki lunged forward towards the terrified girl, intent on taking her life and stealing her Byakugan eyes.

Only moments before Mizuki's kunai struck true, he was forced to halt his attack and dodge the large volley of shuriken that burst from the trees around him. "Mizuki! What are you doing?" A voice called out behind Hinata. Still terrifeyed and confused that her teacher for three years suddenly attacked her, quickly looked in the direction of the voice.

Standing at the edge of the clearing, panting heavily for some reason was Iruka glaring shocked at Mizuki. Before even giving Mizuki a chance to respond, his gaze turned to the frightened form of Hinata, looking up at him for some sort of explanation and help. "Hinata, what you did was a serious crime. But I've taught you for three years now and I know the type of person you are. Why did you steal the scroll? There must have been some reason?" Iruka asked as began to slowly walk to the girl, intent on calming her down.

"M-M-Mizuki-sensei. H-He… H-He s-said it w-was a t-test. S-So t-that I c-could b-be on N-Naruto-kun's t-team." She stuttered out slowly, still in shock at the possible thought that her teacher betrayed her.

Iruka frowned at such a response and looked up from the girl he held as she cried into his shoulder for an explanation from his best friend and co-teacher. However, he wasn't quick enough to react as Mizuki suddenly round-kicked Iruka away before delivering a devastating punch to the side of Hinata's head.

Smirking evilly as he watched his 'best friend' and his 'student' tumble across the ground from his attacks. "You're a fool Iruka! Don't you dare try to get in my way this time! You have always been dragging me down to your pathetic level of power, but NO LONGER! I will use this scroll to obtain powers far greater then anything this village has ever seen! All I need now is this uselessly weak hyuga's eyes and a little something from that demon brat!"

Iruka was left with no time to attack as he watched Mizuki quickly throw his two kunai at Hinata. Dashing to her with all his might, Iruka moved in front of the thrown weapons saving Hinata by using himself as a human shield.

"You're a fool Iruka!" Mizuki taunted once again before delivering a harsh punch to Iruka's head, knocking him to the ground before following up with a chakra enhanced stomp to his stomach.

A sickening crunch was heard as Iruka screamed in pain as several ribs cracked from the pressure, almost immediately knocking him out from the intense pain. Hinata could do nothing for her teacher as she watched Mizuki turn back to face her, still unable to move from stunned shock.

As she gazed into her teachers murderous eyes again, she felt tears fall from her face as she mentally witnessed her death by his hands. She would die, and yet here she was too scared to do anything about it. Too weak to even protect herself. Just watching Mizuki charge towards her, withdrawing another kunai knife, she felt her head fall in sorrow and disgust at her own inability. _'The elders are right… I am too weak.'_

Mizuki laughed like an insane maniac as he narrowed in on the helpless girl before him. He knew that without her precious demon by her side she wouldn't ever have the confidence to stop him. "Your Byakugan is mine you pathetic Hyuga!"

Mere inches from slicing her throat Mizuki was once again forced to halt his attack. This time from a bright blue light that erupted in front of the terrified Hyuga. The blue light slowly lessened in intensity and began to morph its shape into a small ball of blue flame slowly hovering around in front of Hinata.

"What is this? Show yourself demon! I know your out their, your pathetic fire doesn't scare me!" Having been Naruto's teacher for three years now Mizuki could easily identify the hanyou's fox fire techniques.

As if in response approximately three dozen more small balls of fire seemed to faze into existence, appearing similarly to how a ghost would. Just like the first one, all the small fire balls began to move around slowly, seemingly hovering around the clearing in no particular pattern. They very much resembled the floating wisps. Mizuki wasn't worried about the small 'wisps', but the booming voice that filled the clearing was commanding and powerful enough to almost reduce him to his knees. Luckily Mizuki had prepared for this exact thing to happen.

"**You tried to attack Hinata-chan! You hurt Iruka-sensei! I don't care even if you are really Mizuki, I'll shred you limb from limb!**" A horrible bloodlust suddenly filled the clearing, the taste of malice and sheer hatred strangling the air. Without any warning, as soon as the voice had finished a rather large red and white fox with now _four_ long furry tails lunged from tree line directly towards Mizuki. Its blood red eyes glaring with murderous intent at its prey.

Mizuki was surprised at the fox's sudden attack, but was easily able to spin around in time and launch a devastating punch directly into the fox's head. However, Mizuki's eyes widened tremendously in shock as his attack passed straight through the attacking fox, the fox also passing completely through him. Leaving him completely unharmed.

Turning around to see if the fox was still behind him, Mizuki laughed when he found that it had completely disappeared. "You will need more then just cheap kitsune tricks to stop me you fucking demon!" Mizuki called out as his calculating eyes scanned the tree line around the clearing.

In response to his statement, dozens of the same fox suddenly burst from all around the clearing, all charging towards Mizuki with the same savage form. Mizuki just stood unfazed as the foxes all passed right through him, he knew Naruto was trying to freak him out, and therefore force him to make mistakes. But he wasn't a Chunin for nothing and would never fall for such an obvious trap.

Wave after wave of fox illusions past through him, only to appear moments later in another spot of the clearing and attack him again and pass right through him. That is, until one of the fox's claws swipes deeply cut right through his Chunin vest and mesh undershirt, cutting deeply into his flesh before the fox disappeared like its illusionary brothers.

Mizuki howled in pain as he quickly clutched his chest to try and stop the bleeding. The cut was deep and ran a good six inches along his chest, he had been completely unprepared for the attack, assuming that everything was just a useless illusion.

"You fucking demon! I'll enjoy nothing more then killing you and your pathetic Hyuga whore! AND THE VILLAGE WILL BE MORE THEN HAPPY TO BE RID OF YOU!" Mizuki cried out in rage, before proceeding to strike at every fox that tried to attack him.

Naruto smirked viscously as he continued his newest Kitsune illusion. He had never been able to use the technique correctly, barely even forming the fox fire wisps. But that was before he grew his fourth tail. He grinned as much as a fox could grin at this development, that horrible gut feeling he had been having for the past few days was his body _finally_ growing its fourth tail. And even though he had started growing it half way through tracking Hinata, he had managed to stay conscious through sheer determination despite the pain it caused.

With the fourth tail, his control over his yokai chakra within his body improved dramatically and he found it far easier to mould the required mixture of chakra for the technique, and it seemed to flow from him easily.

Naruto growled animalistically as he leaped forward from his hiding place to attack Mizuki again. The massive amounts of yokai chakra surging through his system made it hard to concentrate as the primal urges of the chakra continued to pull on his mind, calling to him and begging him to give in to the dark power.

Hinata watched the fight ensure with frightened eyes. She trusted Naruto with her life and knew he would never hurt her regardless on how much yokai chakra he pulled on. But still, his ferociousness as he attacked Mizuki still pretty much scared the life out of her.

She watched as Mizuki continued to attack the multiple illusionary kitsunes that pounced on him from the trees, she winced occasionally as the real one would join in and leave deep cuts all over Mizuki's body causing him to scream loud in pain and rage each time. As much as she was amazed by her crush's new technique and that he had found her, she was still hurt deeply that after all her training she still couldn't defend herself and him.

That was her dream, to be able to be with Naruto and protect him from all the suffering he endures. But like always, Naruto was just protecting her.

Mizuki, blinding by pain and rage at being outdone by a measly academy student released a sudden burst of chakra in a desperate attempt to dispel the fake kitsunes that continued to viciously dive for him.

Unfortunately for Naruto, his control on his latest Kitsune Illusion was pathetic at best, especially considering the rage clouding his mind, and in mid jump his illusion was dispelled by a large burst of chakra from Mizuki. He didn't have time to react as Mizuki charged forward at the real Naruto, having seen all his illusions including the fire wisps blow away like smoke.

Grabbing the four tailed fox by the back of his neck, Mizuki began to squeeze tightly as he laughed manatically, his eyes bloodshot from the pain of his blood leaking wounds. "You stupid worthless fox! You thought you could defeat me with such a pathetic cheap TRICK!" Mizuki screamed at the fox he held facing away from him.

Quickly grabbing a spare kunai out of his pocket Mizuki thrust it forward viciously, driving it deep into the dog-sized kitune's back. Causing said fox to yelped out in pain. And being unable to reach behind his head with his paws to defend himself, proceeded to try and snap Mizuki's arm off with his tails.

Hinata's watched in slow motion as her teacher stabbed his kunai straight into her crush's back. Her mind seemed to crack as she heard the pain in his yelp, tears fell from her shocked eyes as she watched his bright red blood gush from the wound.

She didn't know what Mizuki was doing, she infact could barely see him, all she could see and comprehend was the pain that it brought her heart to see the damage her teacher did to the person she loved. It almost felt like the cold steel kunai Mizuki was holding pierced her heart instead of her love's back.

He had to save her because she could save herself, he had to fight Mizuki because she was too scared to, and he was hurt because she was too weak to help him. She wanted to help him, to save him like he always did her. But she knew she couldn't, she wasn't strong enough.

As soon as the thought of how weak she was passed through her mind, her mother's final words to her played through her. The memory attempting to give her strength.

"_I wish… I could be there for when you graduate, and when you go on your first… date, and when you get married… and to play… with my grandchildren. But it seems like I won't get… the chance, so I want you… to… to grow up big and strong ok. Be the best ninja… that you can be and make… make me proud of you. And make sure… whoever you choose to love… is a g-good and respectable person. And keep him safe. Be strong Hinata-chan, be strong for me… be the strongest you can, for the one you love."_

'_But I'm not mother… I'm not strong enough to save him, I'm not strong enough. Please mother, please help me! Please give me the courage to save him. PLEASE GIVE ME THE STRENGHT TO SAVE THE ONE I LOVE!'_ Hinata prayed to her mother, tears still pouring from her angelic face as she felt Naruto's Yokai chakra dissipate into thin air like his illusion just moments ago.

At first she felt nothing, but as she focused on her mother's smiling face and Naruto as his form slowly shifted back to his usual hanyou self she felt a great spark of warmth build within her. At first it was just a small flicker, but it grew tremendously as she focused upon it, it felt like a burning fire erupted within her stomach, and like lightning it seemed to ark through her body filling her with the warmth.

It was a warmth that she hadn't felt in a long time, but easily recognised. It was the warmth of a mother's hug, she could feel her mother's presence her spirit embracing her, holding her, giving her the courage she needed.

As the warmth spread to her head, she gasped as she felt a prick behind her eyes, a feeling that was quickly followed by the activation of her Byakugan. At first nothing was different, her vision was its usual black and white and she could see in the normal 360 degrees as well as see Naruto's and Mizuki's chakra and the residue red chakra lingering in the area from Naruto's illusion. But slowly she some began so see a difference that shocked her.

Amidst the chakra circulating within Naruto and Mizuki, Hinata began to see a couple of small dots appear along the chakra pathways in their body. At first they were only few and dull, but within a few seconds that increased exponentially and she could see hundreds of bright dots. She knew what they were, they were chakra points, placing along the chakra network where chakra could be expelled from.

While all Hyuga's could see the chakra network within any living being, only a select few could actually see the chakra points themselves and it was this lack of ability that the Hyuga elders had seen her as a weak heir as without being able to see them she would never be able to fully master and utilize the Gentle Fist style.

But that handicap no longer applied to her, she could see them clearly, burning brightly like hundreds of little lights within a sea of glowing chakra. Her mother had answered her prays, she had gifted her with the only thing she lacked, the only thing that the strong members of their clan including her cousin Neji possessed more then her. The one thing that her training never seemed to bring her.

And as her eyes adjusted to the increase in ability, Hinata could have sworn that she heard her mother's voice within her mind, wrapping around her like warm chakra. Bringing her comfort and focus to her once frightened mind.

"_Go my daughter. Show them your power, save the one you love… save Naruto-kun…"_

In an instant, just like it came, the warm feeling left her. She could no longer feel her mother's spirit, but she could still feel the same desire. The same determination to protect her Naruto, to save him. And now, she had the power.

Jumping up in a burst of speed, Hinata quickly launched two kunai at Mizuki, one aimed for the arm holding her now unconscious crush, while the other was aimed for his head.

Mizuki was not a chunin for nothing and easily detected the incoming projectiles. Although the damage done to him from Naruto's claws earlier had slowed his movements and drained his strength. So to dodge the incoming kunai he was forced to drop the fox within his hand and jump back.

Sliding back from the speed of the jump, Mizuki's glared darkly as the most unexpected person stood between him and his target, Hinata Hyuga stood strong before him in her families fighting stance her Byakugan eyes blazing brightly.

"Foolish girl! Do you honestly think you could stop me? You barely have the confidence to walk outside your own home without your demon boyfriend holding your hand! I could absolutely annihilate you with a single move!" Hinata, dispite her growing fear, did not back down at his words. Her love for the hanyou she stood guard over completely overcoming any fear and insecurities. Naruto was her most precious person, and she would risk everything for him, no matter the cost.

"I don't care what happens to me! But I won't let you hurt Naruto-kun. I will protect him with my life!" Her voice was cold, calculated, and lacked her usual stutter, she meant every word of what she said and to protect him she would destroy the traitor before her.

Mizuki just scoffed at her words before charging forward, intent on crushing the foolish girl before him. Nothing would stand in his way of obtaining the power promised to him.

Hinata quickly followed suit and launched forward, her palm extended back in preparation to deliver her attack. They met in the middle of the clearing, and having vaguly judge Mizuki's attacks with her Byakugan, Hinata thrust her hand forward her hand aimed at a particular chakra point in his shoulder.

Mizuki just smirked at he watched Hinata's surprised expression as he easily slipped past her attack and viciously knocked her hand away from him. Knowing to never give his opponent the chance to recover, he quickly followed through with a round house kick to her head. Knocking her a few good meters away from him despite the fact she had put her hands up to guard in time.

"This is just a waste of time, you're even more pathetic then I thought!" Mizuki spat out as he watched the Hyuga heiress roll harshly along the ground from his kick. However, the smirk he had quickly turned to shock as the Hinata rolling across the ground burst into a puff of smoke to reveal a solid log in her place.

Spinning around on instinct, Mizuki slashed behind him with his kunai. He half expected Hinata to dodge his attack, but was shocked when she bent right back allowing the kunai to slash harmlessly over her.

Knowing not to let such an opening go to waste, Hinata quickly utilized her Gentle Fist style to strike at a select few chakra points in his arm. Twisting up and around, out of Mizuki's reach, her confidence grew exponentially when her Byakugan noticed the chakra points she struck had been closed off. Essentially shutting down all the main chakra pathways in his arm, leaving it dangling uselessly by his side.

She had done it, she could finally master the most advanced arts of the Gentle Fist, she could finally show the elders and her crush just how strong she really was.

Mizuki yelled in anger and rage as he forcibly tried to move his now useless right arm. There was just no way, no way he would ever let the Hyuga trash in front of him ever get the best of him. "You can't stop me! YOU WON'T STOP ME FROM OBTAINING THE POWER I WAS PROMISED!"

Hinata eyes widened in shock at the amazing speed Mizuki used to charge at her with, unconsciously forcing more chakra to her eyes and causing the image of the Eight Trigrams to appear before her in florescent green.

The signs, the figures, the symbols, the patterns of the Eight Trigrams aligned themselves before her. Everything she was taught, every stance, every kata was to utilize and work with the patterns of the Eight Trigrams. She could see, she could see the way the kata's worked, they flowed in and out of the majestic symbols like an intricate dance. A dance, that she would now perform.

Focusing all her energy into her eyes, and lowering herself into the correct stance the last thing that she allowed Mizuki to hear was the words of her attack. "You are within the field of my divination. Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams – Two Palm!-" Timing it exactly, Hinata flicked her body forward injecting her chakra straight into Mizuki's chakra points above his sternum and below his stomach.

"Four Palms!" Sliding around the symbol of the First Trigram she lunged again striking two more chakra points.

"Eight Palms!" Hinata watched in amazement as the world around her slowed down with each progression of the Hyuga's ultimate offence jutsu. Making it easier and easier to precisely close the chakra points.

"Sixteen Palms!" Mizuki could barely even comprehended her attacks as the came at him with accelerating speeds that the human eye just could not match. Upon almost reaching her next round Hinata began to feel the world returning to normal as her Byakugan began to lose focus.

Remembering her training Hinata knew that she would have to prematurely end her attack. Her eyes just weren't use to utilizing the Eight Trigrams to continue and thus she finished at half of the strikes.

"Eight Trigrams: Thirty Two Palms!" Forcing a large amount of chakra into the final attack, Hinata struck Mizuki harshly to the stomach blasting him away from her and the unconscious Naruto and Iruka.

Hinata's Byakugan deactivated as she returned to her normal stance, sweating and breathing heavily at the surprising drain it had on her chakra to perform the technique, even unfinished as it was. But she didn't care, she was the happiest girl in the world as she had finally managed to perform it, and more importantly she had saved her crush's and sensei's lives.

Feeling weak as the drain began to take its effects, Hinata slumped down to her knees, trying desperately to get her breathing under control. "I did it m-mother… I s-saved him. I saved the o-one I love." Being overcome with joy she barely noticed Mizuki's battered form begin to move. That is of course, until two ANBU appeared either side of him, their katana's positioned directly above his throat. While a third retrieved the Scroll of Sealing before joining them.

A few moments later, the entire clearing was suddenly filled with various ninja, all of which belonging to either the Hyuga clan or the new Uchiha clan. Tohru being one of the first to react, quickly ran to check on her little brother, a few other branch members began to check Iruka before carting him off to the hospital, while Hiashi went to stand next to his daughter.

Hinata jumped slightly when she felt a hand on her shoulder, but that shock quickly turned to a smile before she jumped up, embracing her father in a bone crushing hug as she cried happily into his shoulder.

"I saw everything as I was running here. You have done well my daughter, all your extra training has paid off you make me very proud." He said with one of his rare genuine smiles as she returned his daughter's hug. His Byakugan had seen the closed chakra points on Mizuki so he knew that she indeed did successfully perform the jutsu, and he couldn't be prouder.

"And I'm pretty sure someone else is very impressed." He said as he turned his daughter around before stepping back.

Standing before her, supported by Tohru, was a now conscious Naruto grinning brightly at her. Although, there was something different about this smile, something she had never quite seen before and was quite curious as to what he was thinking.

Although Naruto didn't give her much time to analyse his emotions as he lunged forward, balancing himself with his tails he grabbed his best friend, pulling her into him as he held her tightly. Hinata was shocked and a little embarrassed at his sudden movements, but it was his words that truly made her heart skip.

"I… I so glad your safe Hinata-chan. I-I don't know what I would have done if you were hurt, or worse. You are my most precious of people… and thank you, thank you for saving me." Naruto said between hiccups as tears of joy and relief fell from his face.

He couldn't describe what he felt as he held his best friend within his arms, it was like a great warmth he never knew he had filled an empty space within his very soul. Just seeing her alive and safe brought him more happiness then anything he could ever remember. He wanted to hold her like this forever, never wanting this feeling of completeness and joy to leave him. He wanted to be close to her forever, never leaving her side, he never wanted to fear for her life like he had been ever again.

He couldn't tell what this strange warmth was, but it felt… right. It seemed to stir up many other thoughts and feelings, many of which Naruto could barely recognise, the only thing he did know, was that right now his best friend was the cause of this wonderful feeling that brought him such peace. He would have to ask Tohru later if she could perhaps explain to him what he felt.

Everyone within the clearing, except of course the barely conscious Mizuki, all smiled at the wonderful sight before them and Hinata and Naruto held each other close, crying into each other as they let go of all the worry and stress of the day. No one in the clearing could deny the feeling emanating and surrounding those two, the relief they brought each other, the happiness that gave each other, and the love that those obviously held for one another. Even if Naruto had yet to fully realise his feelings.

The two friends slowly parted and Hinata's face soon lit up like a Christmas light when she noticed the knowing looks of everyone around her. Naruto however was to busy occupied with his own weird feelings to notice, or to notice that one of his tails had wrapped its tip around his best friend's hand.

Before anyone could say or ask anything of what happened, the three ANBU holding Mizuki began to declare his punishment as they locked him in chains.

"Mizuki Uraki, having knowingly manipulated a fellow shinobi of Konoha and Heiress to the Hyuga clan into stealing the Scroll of Sealing, and then attacking her, a fellow academy instructor, and the Kitsune Hanyou known as Naruto Uzumaki. You will be immediately arrested, stripped of your rank and sentenced to six months in prison before you appeared before the Konoha Council for trial." Spoke the unmoving ANBU with the a beaver mask, before picking him up disappearing in a swirl of leaves with the other two ANBU.

However, no one noticed the sick smirk that appeared on Mizuki's face before he was taken away when he looked towards the edge of the clearing at two small vials of red liquid hidden amongst the leaves. _'I may have failed to obtain all of them, but at least I still got the most powerful.'_

Sasuke smirked as he walked over to Hinata and Naruto, seeing that everything had been taken care of he had already dismissed his family members and they all slowly began to leave. He had been given a letter requesting his clan's help from Tohru, and after arranging peace between his clan and the Hyuga's he was more then happy to assist. Especially considering it was his friends that needed help.

"So dobe, even after all your training and after growing your fourth tail it seems, you still need Hinata's help to do anything right. I thought that as Kitsune's grew more tails they became wiser and stronger, with you it seems you just seem to get dumber and weaker." Sasuke stated, trying to entice a reaction out of his hanyou friend.

"Oh yeah Sasuke! I don't think you could have beaten Mizuki-sen… I mean Mizuki all by yourself either! Besides, Hinata-chan could kick your's and my arse any day Mr. IStillDontHaveMySharingan!" Naruto barked back at his friend, a low growl being heard throughout the whole reaction and after.

Sasuke's smirk quickly disappeared at that touchy subject and almost instinctly began to lower himself into the Uchiha's fighting stance. But before a rival fight could erupt, another ANBU, this time it was Cat, appeared in a swirl of leaves in the centre of the clearing.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga, the Hokage has requested your presence immediately. Both to discuss the Scroll of Sealing and Mizuki Uraki. Lord Hiashi Hyuga you are requested as well." Yugao/Cat quickly stated, before bowing low in respect to Hiashi and leaving the same way she came.

Hiashi seemed a little annoyed at the request as it was late in the night, but knew better then to keep the Hokage waiting, especially considering what needed to be discussed. "Come along, my daughter, Naruto-kun we will have to debrief the Hokage on everything that has happened. Tohru-san, tell everyone they can leave now and could you please prepare a room for Naruto-kun as he will be staying the night after being tended to at the hospital." Hiashi laughed mentally at the horrified expression that passed over Naruto's face at the mention of hospital before turning to Sasuke and bowing respectfully.

"Thank you for assisting us find my daughter even though it turned out that we didn't need it. May the Hyuga and Uchiha clans continue to prosper together."

Sasuke politely bowed in response before saying his goodbyes to his friends and leading his family home.

As everyone else left Hiashi, Naruto and Hinata slowly began to walk for the Hokage's office, each with their own thoughts playing through their minds. For Hiashi it was thoughts of pride that his daughter had displayed such skill and had defeated a Chunin level ninja with a technique she had only just learnt to perform.

For Naruto it was thoughts on how happy he was to see his best friend safe and how proud he was of her that she saved him. He was also deeply concerned about the pulsating warmth that continued to spread through his body, it seemed to increase exponentially whenever he even glanced at his best friend.

And he couldn't seem to shake the desire to stand closer to her, and hold her like he had just moments ago. He wanted to pull her over time him, wrap his arms around her and never let go, they were powerful feelings, stronger then any of his kitsune instincts and yet they didn't scare him but for some reason make him feel even happier.

For Hinata it was happiness and joy at having finally advanced her Byakugan enough to see chakra points and having saved her crush. And it was also on trying to control her increasing blush from noticing that Naruto's tail had still released its hold on her hand.

Her heart was racing at the possible meanings, her head was telling her that he was just so overjoyed to see her safe and that she was just over thinking things, while her heart was telling her that he also held the same feelings for her as she did for him. Her heart was telling her that he was returning her love, even if he was still yet to realise.

'_Even if you don't return my feelings Naruto-kun… I will always protect the one I love.'_

_Next chapter: New Sensei and Mission One!_


	22. Chapter 21: Feelings and the New Sensei

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Well here is the latest chapter two weeks after the last. Better then last time which was a horrible three.

Anyway, my sister was complaining about the lack of more _serious_ NaruHina parts so I have sort of started showing aspects of their feelings a chapter earlier then was planned. I hope you all appreciate it.

Oh, and to the random reviewer saying I made Hinata overpowered by having her defeat Mizuki... um what the hell man?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products, I do however own any original plotline and characters.

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Chapter 21: Feelings and the New Sensei

Sarutobi gave a long exhausted sigh as he watched the majority of Jonin of the village file into his office, his tired eyes acknowledged each one as they entered. He knew why they were all here, but he seriously wished that he could postpone it.

He had been up most of the night using his crystal ball to scry the events that had taken place. And after that he had to discuss the events with Naruto, Hinata and Hiashi. He had seen everything that had happened but still needed everything to be documented. There was no way that Hinata would have gotten in trouble for what she did as she was manipulated and fooled into doing it. But he still had to have a slightly stern conversation in private with the young heiress about it, especially considering she had read from the scroll.

She seemed genuinely very upset at having read parts of the scroll and almost looked like she would have fainted when he told her how important that scroll actually was. But he had gotten the girl to calm down when he explained that she wasn't in trouble it was just that he was concerned for her health as all the jutsu and jutsu theories in the scroll could have seriously injured her.

He himself felt slightly sorry for the girl when he had her explain exactly how Mizuki had managed to trick her into doing the 'extra exam'. He knew well of Hinata's crush on his hanyou 'grandson' and knowing her personality the explanation must have embarrassed her greatly. And it certainly didn't help when he praised her for her amazing display of skill.

His private talk with Naruto went a little easier, except for the fact that the blond hanyou seemed rather preoccupied with something on his mind. He could tell exactly what Naruto was feeling as soon as he made eye contact with him. Naruto was as easy to read as an open book if you looked into his eyes. It always seemed like they were the window into the hanyou's very soul, and amidst the brilliant blue ocean and rim of red that were his eyes Sarutobi could easily see the emotions swirling around within his mind.

He was quite glad that his 'grandson' had finally started to notice the feelings he had for his Hyuga friend, but just looking at him Sarutobi could also tell that Naruto had yet to realise what the feelings actually meant. He was tempted to explain them to Naruto but he felt it just wasn't his place. Besides, he found the whole predicament rather cute.

Returning his attention to the here and now he decided to address the gathered crowd before him as almost everyone had seemed to arrive. He cleared his throat first to gain their attention.

"As you all know the academy has finished training four classes of genin hopefuls. You have all been called here to nominate which students you would like to take on as a genin team. There won't be any apprentices this year so only teams of three are allowed. We will start with class 5B, any Jonin wishing to train genin from this class please step forward." He commanded while withdrawing a small document folder holding all the information on the students who past from that class. A number of Jonin stepped forward and as per usual began to request certain team combinations.

These combinations were very carefully considered choices and the Jonin requesting them often had to give in depth reasons on why. Although the Hokage made the final decision on whether or not these teams were permitable, he almost never had to alter them as the Jonin usually studied the students for a week or more from the shadows and always made logical choices on whom would make the best teams together.

The same process continued for the other two classes, Jonin would step forward, make their requests the Hokage would write it down for consideration and the Jonin would then leave.

The last class, class 1A Sarutobi knew would cause problems, it usually did because most of the academy students in that class were of much higher skill level and the Jonin often fought over who would get to train who. Sighing tiredly as he knew it needed to be done, Sarutobi announced the class and asked for team requests.

The first Jonin that stepped forward was a fairly tall male with deep brown eyes and short black spiked hair with a small beard trailing down the side of his face and meeting at his chin. His clothing was just the standard Konoha Jonin uniform with the usual flak jacket and his headband tied around his forehead. He also wore a rather intricate sash around his waist and wore solid metal bracelets on both of his wrist. His name was Asuma Sarutobi a chain smoker and the Hokage's son. They hadn't been on the best of terms for some years now, but they both could understand one another quite well when it came to shinobi business so Sarutobi knew his son would make a good choice in a team combination.

"Hokage-sama, I request a team consisting of Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimich and Shikimaru Nara." Asuma stated with a slight bow of his head. Sarutobi could only grin at this choice, he had been hoping someone would ask for this combination as he himself thought it a perfect team. This was because their parents had been on a team together and had become famous all across the great nations for there flawless teamwork. There team had eventually become known as Ino-Shika-Cho. And as their parents had been such a successful team together Sarutobi and Asuam it also seemed believe that they too would make a great team.

Nodding his head with a small smile Sarutobi quickly wrote down the recommendation before dismissing his son, he did not need the reason for this team explained to him.

Next to step forward was a beautiful young woman that had just recently been promoted to Jonin and she was quickly making a name for herself with her amazing Genjutsu talents, her name was Kurenai Yuuhi. Her hair was a dark brown and reached well over her shoulders and had a single braid down the back. Her eyes had the strangest of bright reddish-brown and she held quite a friendly smile. Her dress sense was a little bit different to the norm as she had fighting tape wrapped tightly around her hands and arms, her outfit was made of white tight fitting flex cloth wrapped around her in crosses with red sleeves coming down her arms to her wrists.

"I would like to request a team of Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame." Sarutobi thought the team would make an excellent tracking team as Naruto's sense of smell and hearing would work perfectly well with Hinata's Byakugan while Shino could easily scout and attack with his Kikai Bugs. And Kurenai had obviously down her homework well as Hinata and Naruto had to highest grades in their class for teamwork with each other.

However, before Sarutobi was able to confirm her reasons another Jonin who was considerably late to the team selection appeared before him in a burst of smoke.

"I would like you to consider that I train Naruto Uzumaki instead, Hokage-sama. I would like to request him on a team with Sasuke Uchiha and Hinata Hyuga." Spoke the new arrival. As the smoke cleared everyone was able to see who it was. Kakashi Hatake, also known as the Copy Ninja Kakashi across the great nations. He dressed similarly to most Jonin, opting to wear plain navy trousers and long sleeved shirt, covered by his Jonin jacket over the top. He was a tall and rather well built man with easily identifiable spiky white hair that stood up to one direction. His face was mostly covered by a navy cloth mask and his leaf headband which was pulled down over his scarred eye socket that held a single Sharingan eye that was left to him by his long dead teammate.

"I don't appreciate your lateness Kakashi-kun nor do I appreciate you cutting off a fellow Jonin as she was making her request. I however can tell you right now that I cannot allow such a team as all three of those members have the highest grades in the class and as such I cannot allow all of the highest talent to group together." Kakashi had the decency to chuckle in embarrassment at being chastised for his lateness. Although he had his own reasons for requesting such a team.

"I can understand your reasoning Hokaga-sama, I'm assuming you know the reasons I wish to train them, and if it makes the choice easier I could train Sakura Haruno instead of Hinata Hyuga." Sarutobi sighed as he wrote down the team recommendation from both Kakashi and Kurenai. But as he was about to inquire into their reasons the most unlikely trio of Jonin burst into his office in distinctly different ways.

One Anko Mitarashi smashed through one of the windows in his office, spinning mid air before landing in a rather striking pose, small colour smoke bombs exploding in time to her landing. The ANBU Cat appeared next to her in a swirl of leaves gripping Anko's shoulder tightly while Tohru Hyuga burst through the office doors and held Anko's other shoulder.

"I am sorry Hokaga-sama, we tried to stop her from barging in uninvited but failed." Yugao said while sternly glancing at Anko through her Cat mask. Tohru just nodded her head in agreement.

Sarutobi was actually quite surprised to see Anko here, although he had expected such an entrance from her though. "Hmm… Anko-chan, I assume that if you're here then you have finally agreed with my request of you taking a genin team?" Sarutobi asked rather curiously much to the shock of all the remaining Jonin who thought Anko would make a rather… chaotic choice for a sensei.

"That's right old man, I'm here to ask to take Naruto Uzumaki on as an apprentice, if you won't allow me then I'll take a team of whoever as long at it has that little brat… oh and his Hyuga girlfriend, I want her as well. The more I get to torture the better." Anko explained excitably with a slightly evil smile adorning her face. Not at all phased by her two friends holding her down.

Sarutobi gave a tired sigh at this. But luckily for him Yugao decided to reprimand her before he could speak.

"Anko-san you should show a little more respect towards the Hokage, and you know you can't take a team until you are a full fledge Jonin." She explained while trying to pull her out of the room as quickly as possible before Anko embarrassed them all.

"Oh lighten up Kitten-chan, you know just as well as I do that I was promised a promotion if I took a team! Besides-" she started as a devious grin formed on her face. "-I know for a fact that both you and Tohru-chan were going to request the exact same thing! So let me go before I get my snakes to post pictures of every single embarrassing thing you two have down since you were five! Including nude swimming shots when we went to that hotspring a month ago!"

Both Tohru and Yugao paled slightly at the threat before quickly releasing their friend. They weren't sure if she really had such things as they hadn't been friends when they were five, but they really didn't want to push their luck as Anko could be just as devious as Naruto in that respect.

Most of the male Jonin chuckled perversely at the thought of seeing such nude shots, but Sarutobi however was not really interested in that, what he did find interesting in was what had been said. "Is that true? All three of you wish to either apprentice Naruto or have him and a team? And I suppose you all want Hinata Hyuga as well?" He paused slightly to watch the three women before him slowly nod their heads in response, before glaring at each other like jealous girls fighting for the same boy.

This made his choices even more difficult and he really didn't like it. Although Yugao was a ANBU she could easily resign her position to take on a genin team, and he _had_ promised Anko to make her a full Jonin if she took a team, and while he knew Tohru didn't perform as many missions as most other Jonin because of her status as a Hyuga branch member he knew that she would easily make a fine sensei.

Five, five of his strongest shinobi wanted rights to train Naruto Uzumaki, his grandson, The Kitsune Hanyou of Konoha and Hinata Hyuga said hanyou's closest friend and the only graduate to ever defeat a Chunin level ninja even before being assigned a team. Sighing for what felt like the hundredth time that morning, Sarutobi began to right down notes as he got each one of them to explain their reasons for the wanting their teams.

'_This is going to be a long morning… I'm really getting too old for this job.'_

Hyuga Compound – Main House

Naruto was sleeping peacefully in the bed he had been given to stay the night in. He really liked staying over at Hinata's house as the silk sheets and quilts were always so soft and warm, although he had to really be careful as he could easily slice the delicate sheets with his clawed hands or feet if he kicked or moved around in his sleep.

He had been having the most wonderful dream of sitting on a giant mountain of Ichiraku ramen, eating and eating till his heart was content with his best friend by his side mimicking his actions, albeit at a much slower pace. This wonderful dream was ended quickly however, when he was awoken by little squeals that almost burst his poor sensitive ears.

"Fox-niichan help!-"

"-Hanabi-baka is trying-"

"-to kill us!"

Before he had any idea what was going on he was tackled in his bed as three young triplets scrambled under his covers and clung to him, each holding a tail and a limb, with only their heads poking out of the covers.

Within seconds a very scruffy, tired and really angry Hanabi Hyuga burst into the room glaring death itself at the three seven year olds. Her hair was in a frizzy explosive mess and her face was covered in an abundance of different cosmetic products. Obviously the triplets had tried to give her a make over in her sleep.

"You three are so dead! If this stuff doesn't come off then I will personally make you three my training dummies!" She screamed before lunging at the triplets completely ignoring Naruto in her fury.

Said hanyou not wanting to get caught in the fight quickly leapt out of his bed, carefully wrapping a tail around each of the triplets before speeding out of his room and down the hallway.

All three triplets became a choir of giggles as they watched Hanabi try to chase them while their foxy brother held them up in the air with his tails as he ran.

"Quick Fox-niichan!-"

"-Shes going to catch us-"

"-If you don't hurry!"

Naruto, being the loving brother he is, listened to their pleas and jumped down to all fours taking off and easily outrunning the furious Hyuga chasing them.

That is however until Naruto burst into the kitchen. Luckily for him there was no one else apart from Hiashi, Hizashi, Hisano and Hinata. If it had been any one else then he could have very well embarrassed all of those present which would have meant no ramen for a week!

Stopping dead in his tracks as everyone looked at him with something only akin to confusion and shock, he took a few steps to the left to allow Hanabi to also pass into the kitchen while still keeping the triplets high in the air.

"I'm going to kill you three!" Hanabi screamed as she lunged towards Naruto. She stopped immediately when she heard her father's stern voice reprimand her.

"Hanabi-chan, I will not have you yelling in the main house. A Hyuga never raises her voice in the presents of others as it is a sign of lack of control." He commanded sternly, after he finished however, a small smirk and a raised eyebrow graced his face as in inquired into what had happened to her face.

"These three here father decided to use me as a real doll. Look at what they did!" Hanabi was quite embarrassed at having everyone see her in such a state, and quickly ran back out of the kitchen when her father dismissed her.

As soon as she was out of ear shot, Hizashi burst out into a fit of laughter along with his daughters. Hinata had to hide her face in her bowl and even Hiashi had to contain his laughter.

"Naruto-kun, you can place them down now." Hiashi commanded as he continued to try to keep his laughter from escaping him. "Now you three, would you mind explaining why my daughter was covered in cosmetics?"

All three grinned sheepishly before gathering together, obviously to discuss how they would explain it. Although no one knew why they bothered because as far as anyone had ever seen they think identically. Even after all these years no one but their mother could tell them apart, and they were all waiting for the day when a difference is finally noticed. Breaking apart having conversed an explanation they spoke up one after the other.

"Well Uncle, we saw Hinata-neechan-"

"-putting some on the other day to-"

"-make herself even prettier, so-"

"-we thought we could make Hanabi-neechan-"

"-look even prettier because of how-"

"-nice she has been to us."

"But now she is trying to-"

"-kill us."

They finished their explanation with three identical innocent grins. Although no one was actually fooled by their acts, they had been spending _way _to much time with Naruto and over time had grown to love his pranks.

However, it wasn't that that had Hiashi concerned, it was what they said about Hinata. His daughter was a beauty and had absolutely no reason to use cosmetics. However, before he could enquire into her reasons Naruto butted in, having already found that part odd.

"Hey Hinata-chan you don't need no smelly make-up. You're already as beautiful as an angel." Naruto called out to his best friend.

Everyone watched as Hinata's face lit up like a light bulb and she turned her head away from everyone to hide her embarrassment and to try and stop herself from fainting. "I um… w-what d-do… I-I-I m-mean… um… T-Thank you N-N-Naruto-kun…" On the outside she was a nervous wreck, such a statement from Naruto practically reduced her to a melting blob. But on the inside she couldn't believe on how happy she was, the only reason she had started wearing make-up was because she had started thinking that she wasn't pretty enough to catch Naruto's attention.

'_He thinks I'm as beautiful as an angel! I'm… beautiful to him.'_

Everyone smiled knowingly as they watched Hinata attempt to hide herself in her jacket collar, but what they weren't expecting was Naruto's reaction.

Naruto felt the strange feeling from yesterday explode again within him, its warmth surging through his body and heating him up. For a reason he couldn't explain his words and seeing Hinata's reaction to them caused him to shy away, forcing his gaze to look elsewhere as he felt his face warm up.

Everyone stared with interested gazes at the two, Hiashi more knowingly then Hizashi and Hisano. They all knew of Hinata's crush on the blond hanyou, but to see the red blush flash across Naruto's face and to see him averting his gaze away from his best friend caused them all to smile at finally seeing Naruto feel the emotions and feelings he held for his best friend. Although judging by his confused face and creased brow he still hadn't figured out what was causing the feelings or what they were.

Knowing how to deal with this situation, Hiashi just asked Hinata and Naruto on if they knew who was going to be on who's team. And as predicted the distraction was enough to pull Naruto from his confusion and Hinata from her jacket and to begin a normal conversation.

After Neji had arrived and Hanabi had cleaned herself they all sat down to eat breakfast. Although the whole time the adults could easily spot the numerous glances Naruto stole of Hinata. Usually it was the other way around and it was quite humorous to see Naruto fighting himself in his mind as to why he kept looking at Hinata.

Hinata had noticed her crush's odd behaviour all morning and was trying to figure out a way to ask him if he was feeling all right. Usually he was bright, loud and hyperactive, but all morning through breakfast he had been rather quite and seemed to be thinking deeply on something. And what really made her worry was that every time she looked at him he would quickly turn his head away from her. Almost like he didn't want to see her or listen to her. _'Was is something I said? Or did I do something to make him angry with me last night. Naruto-kun never acts like this.'_

Although it concerned her and worried her for some reason she felt it better to just leave him to whatever it was that he was thinking about. After all, he was her best friend and he never kept anything from her, so he would tell her eventually anyway.

Everyone else had also noticed Naruto's odd behaviour, but only the adults could tell what exactly was on the blond Hanyou's mind. Neji might also have been able to figure it out if he wasn't staring so intently at his triplet sisters. It had become a little goal in his life to find a way to tell his siblings apart, but watching them eat only seemed to infuriate him more as not only were they eating the exact same thing, but they were also easting in perfect timing with each other!

After breakfast had been finished, Naruto and Hinata quickly dashed towards Ino's house while waving goodbye to everyone at the Hyuga compound.

Hizashi turned to face his brother, and asked the question that was on him and his wife's mind. "So my brother, what are you going to do about those two?" He asked in an oddly serious tone.

"If Naruto-kun realises what his feelings are and wishes to court Hinata-chan and she accept him, then they will have my blessing and I will do everything to ensure that they are allowed to be with one another. The Elders will have a problem with it I am sure, but if those two wish to be together then so shall it be. Even if I have to use the 'old laws'." Hisano and Hizashi were quite shocked at what Hiashi said. They had expected that he would be supportive of a relationship between Naruto and his daughter, but the level of conviction they had in his voice was quite unexpected. Sensing their confusion at his firm decision, Hiashi just began to walk away slowly and as he spoke his reason a single tear fell from his stoic face as the memory returned to his mind.

"It was Hitomi's last request."

Konoha Academy

All of the graduates of class A1 were busily and excitedly discussing the teams they thought everyone would be placed on as they waited patiently for their teachers to arrive. Well, everyone but Naruto was waiting patiently.

Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou was currently impatiently hitting his tails on his desk as he conversed with his best friends on possible teams. "So who do you think will be our other team member Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked in a desperate attempt to entertain himself and to break the odd air of silence that had been hanging around his best friend and himself. He couldn't for the life of him realise why he was feeling so weird around his friend and he was worried if it was going to cause a problem with their friendship.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that w-we will be in the s-same team. But um… I'm not really s-sure on who our other m-member will be." Despite her troubled mind about Naruto's odd behaviour towards her, she couldn't help but smile on how good she felt. Every since last night she had been feeling unusually confident in herself and everyone around her had noticed that her stutter had improved dramatically. She felt strong, and sure of herself, almost like she could take on the world.

Although, she was still far from feeling confident enough to speak to Naruto on how she felt towards hims.

Thinking of Naruto though only seemed to make her heart ache slightly. Usually on the trips to the academy he would always have some sort of physical contact with her, whether it just be pulling her along by her hand or carrying her with his tails or piggy back. But on the way to Ino's house and to the academy Naruto had seemed almost 'afraid' to touch her and kept looking away from her and even though usually she would almost pass out from embarrassment when he touched her hand or the like, she had always really enjoyed the feelings of happiness that spread through her body whenever his hand touched hers.

Ino had been observing her two best friends all morning and found the whole situation absolutely adorable. She had watched both of them stealing glances of the other all the way to the academy and whenever Naruto accidentally touched Hinata he would jump a little in shock before turning away, a small blush adorning his face every time.

Seeing them talking to each other now with equally shy faces, Ino smirked deviously as she positioned her foot near Naruto's back, before quickly jabbing it forward. She had only intended to use enough force to push Naruto into Hinata. But not everything goes to plan.

Trying to converse normally with his best friend while desperately trying to force the odd feelings within his chest down, Naruto was completely unprepared to be suddenly pushed forward. Being completely off balance, Naruto closed his eyes tightly as he tumbled into his best friend, knocking both of them to the ground.

Hinata lay wide eyed on the ground, while Naruto lay on top of her, their faces mere centimetres apart.

For a good few seconds neither of them could move, nor did they notice the whole class had gone silent as they had seen what had happened and were now watching the pair intently.

Hinata couldn't move even if she wanted to, Naruto was far too heavy for her to lift off of her, and she was feeling weaker as her mind focused on the handsome face before her, his cute whisper marks, his wild untameable hair, his captivating sapphire eyes, his cute twitching fox ears. And most of all, his lips that were so close to hers that she could feel his warm breath on her, tickling her face and neck sending shivers down her spine.

Her mind was racing as her face heated up, she so desperately wanted to pull him closer, locking his lips to her own, showing him how she felt without the need to tell him. But she was far too scared, too fearful of what would happen if he pulled away, this fear of rejection was what had always kept her from telling him how she felt as she didn't want to risk her friendship with him.

But the sheer proximately they shared and her accelerating heart rate, seriously made her choice of whether it was worth the risk difficult for her.

Naruto was overwhelmed by the feelings rushing through him. He felt like his body was on fire as he felt the strange gut feeling explode within him as his body made contact with Hinata's. He could barely breath, the heat spread through him to his face, turning it bright red as he realised on how close he actually was to his friend. But amidst his thoughts of confusion about the feeling, he couldn't help but find himself drawn to her.

'_She is so beautiful…'_

As he continued to admire her, he unconsciously found himself leaning closer, pressing himself against her as the warm feeling drove him closer to her. His breath began to increase in pace as his heart-rate increased. He couldn't even begin to describe what he felt anymore, it was like a everything that brought him joy in the world converged together whenever he made contact with his best friend. So mesmerized by the feelings and the sheer beauty of the girl under him, he didn't even realised that his face began to lower towards hers.

'_This feeling… I… I think I'm beginning to understand…'_

Hinata however, could barely breath as she watched Naruto lower himself, his lips so close to her own. _'Is he?... He couldn't be? Is he going to… to kiss me!'_

Hinata felt her head begin to spin at the thought. She couldn't believe what was happening, after all this time was Naruto actually returning her feelings? Even without knowing how she felt? Or did he already know?

She was about to resign herself to her feelings, and allow the one she loved to be her first kiss. But it was not meant to be. Suddenly and without warning, Naruto pulled back and jumped to his feet. Nervously scratching the back of his head as he smiled sheepishly at her, his tails waving in embarrassment.

"Hehe, sorry Hinata-chan. I didn't mean to knock you over but SOMEONE-" he said while glaring at a brightly grinning Ino. "-pushed me from behind." Although Naruto made it seem like he didn't feel anything about it. Even he could not deny the big blush that covered his face as he helped his friend up from the ground. The warm feeling intensifying again as his hand made contact with hers.

"It's ok Naruto-kun, I-I know you didn't do it o-on purpose." Hinata replied with her usual happy smile. Although on the inside she was a raging storm of turmoil, she was so convinced that Naruto was actually returning her feelings and was about to kiss her, that when he pulled back a little piece of her heart seemed to have broke.

'_Oh don't be silly Hinata… he doesn't really feel like that towards you. He was just leaning forward so that he could balance himself before jumping up. He just likes you as a friend.' _She mentally berated herself as she fought back the tears.

Unbeknownst to Hinata however, Naruto was having completely different thoughts. _'I think I'm beginning to understand. Could it be… could it really be that I feel like this because… because I _like_ Hinata-chan. But… But that's just wrong! I can't like my best friend that's just gross! Besides, I doubt that Hinata-chan would ever think of me like that anyway. I mean I know she's my best friend and all, but who would really love a demon? Maybe… maybe I should talk to Tohru-neechan about this.'_

Although Naruto hadn't referred to himself as a monster or demon for a fair few years now. The very idea of someone as beautiful, kind, caring and honest as Hinata loving someone like him, to him, sounded impossible. He was nowhere near good enough for Hinata and apart from that nothing would hurt him more then to see Hinata treated like he is just because of him. She gets treated badly enough for just being seen walking with him sometimes.

Despite his fears on the topic, he couldn't deny the feelings that were urging him to once again hold his best friend like he was just moments ago. Those few seconds he had never felt so happy, and so complete.

Both Hinata and Naruto soon returned to their seats, neither of them able to look at the other without turning away and blushing. Ino, who was still observing them both, could barely keep her laughter inside her. Although she still found the situation incredibly cute.

Iruka slowly walked into the class and everyone instantly fell silent. He wasn't sure if it was because they were so anxious to know what teams they were on, or if it was because of the huge bandages his torso was wrapped in.

"Morning class-" He started as a bright and happy smile formed on his face. "-today is your first day as official Genin of Konoha. It has been an absolute pleasure to teach you all, even if at times some of you made it difficult." He paused while glaring quickly at Naruto, who just grinned sheepishly. "I shall announce shortly the teams that you have been assigned to. The teams as you know will consist of three Genin and one Jonin instructor, they will be your comrades, partners and closest friends. You will learn to fight together as a squad and defend Konoha and all its citizens until you have all reached the rank of Jonin. And I was proud to have been your instructor for the last three years." As Iruka finished he withdrew a small scroll from his chunin jacket and began to slowly list the teams and their instructors.

Naruto was literally digging out huge chunks of his desk as his claws easily sliced through the wood as he gripped it in nervousness. He was happy with any combination as long as he was team with his best friend and NOT Kiba.

Hinata was along the same lines of thought, although she was also hoping that none of the other girls from their class that liked Naruto was on their team. Having Sasuke or Ino on her team as well as Naruto would be a perfect team in her mind.

"Next is Team 7, which will consist of Sasuke Uchiha-" Sasuke perked up at having heard his name, he wasn't really too concerned about the other teams as he was just listening for his and Naruto's name. "-Kiba Inuzuka and Sakura Haruno. Your Jonin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

Sasuke's head immediately hit the desk when he heard he was paired with Sakura, he didn't particularly hate the girl but she was probably the most annoying out of all of his fangirls. Sakura however was thanking her lucky stars as she started bragging as loud as she could to all the other girls that _she _was on Sasuke's team. Most of them were aimed at Ino.

"Next is Team 8, which will consist of Naruto Uzumaki-" Naruto's head shot up from where he was resting it on and his tails began wagging in excitement, he didn't really care too much who was on his team as long as they were his friends. "-Shino Aburame-" This one shocked Naruto a little, Shino wasn't really one of his friends as the guy tended to keep to himself, but he wasn't mean to him either so Naruto could easily befriend him.

Hinata however was having completely different thoughts. She was basically hyperventilating as she prayed over and over again in her mind that she was on Naruto's team. "-and Hinata Hyuga. Your Jonin sensei will be Kurenai Yuuhi."

Iruka just smiled happily as he watched the two best friends jump up and cheer excitedly as they hugged each other in joy. Or, more Naruto cheered as Hinata wasn't really heard over his loud voice. Within seconds of embracing one another, they leapt apart, both of them embarrassed by the physical contact if the blushes on each of their faces were any indication.

"Team 9 is still in circulation, so next is Team 10: which will consist of Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. That is all the teams of this year, I wish you all the best in your ninja carrier and hope all of your dreams become reality. Your Jonin instructors will meet you here shortly. Goodbye my students." With the last of his announcements made, Iruka disappeared in a burst of smoke, he didn't want to stay any longer and witness the happy tears that were threatening to fall from the instructors eyes.

As soon as he left talk exploded amongst the excited newly minted Genin, although no voice could be heard louder then one Ino Yamanaka. "WHAT? WHY DO I HAVE TO BE TEAMED WITH THE FAT-BOY AND THE LAZIEST ARSE IN THE WHOLE VILLAGE!" Ino screeched in a moment of self pity and anger. She knew both of them because her father and their father's had always encouraged a friendship between the all three of them. And although Ino could consider them to be her friends, that certainly didn't mean that she wanted to on their team.

Shikamaru, who had been sleeping until just before his team's announcement turned a lazy eye to his new blond haired teammate and groaned in annoyance. "Great, not only do I have a girl on my team but out of everyone it had to be her, she's the loudest and most annoying bitch in the whole damn academy… life is such a drag." Shikamaru moaned before going back to sleep.

However, his muttered comment was unluckily heard by Ino, who immediately developed a blazing fire in her eyes as an aura of pure destruction and rage blasted from her in her fury. It took all four of Naruto's powerful tails to restrain her from literally killing the sleeping Nara, and to require that much of Naruto's sheer natural strength to hold her was definitely saying something.

When Ino had finally calmed down Naruto and Hinata tried their hardest to console her about her team. They both wanted to be teamed with her or for her to be teamed with Sasuke as they both supported her in her endeavours to date the Uchiha head. But alas she was in neither.

It was in those few moments of consolation that a beautiful female Jonin with long redish brown hair and gorgeous red eyes entered the class room. Standing firm she addressed the students before her. "Team 8 please come with me." And without another word, she just simply left.

Naruto and Hinata blinked twice in confusion, before saying goodbye to their friends and quickly following after whom they assumed was their new sensei. Naruto smacking Sasuke with a tail as was his customary 'see ya' to Sasuke on the way out. They were soon followed by Shino, who had yet to really say anything to his two new teammates.

As the three dashed out into the academy hallway, they were surprised to see it completely empty, not a single trace of their new sensei.

"Huh? Where did she go?" Naruto asked absentmindedly as he quickly scanned around him for any sight or sound. Hinata quickly followed suit and activated her Byakugan, with a quick scan around her she confirmed that their new sensei was definitely not in the academy or its surrounding grounds.

"She's not here, I-I couldn't see her anywhere in the building. Even o-outside."

Both Hinata and Naruto looked at Shino as their heard his body 'buzz' before he seemed to draw back into his mind, analysing something carefully. "I think its some sort of test. I couldn't say why, but I believe we must find her. But if what you say is true Hinata-san, and that she isn't in the academy then it might be a difficult task to find her."

They both nodded at his logic and smiled at him, something that seemed to make him shift uncomfortably. They both knew that all Aburame's were not very social, and they could easily notice that their attention on him was uncomfortable.

So in respect to his feelings, both Naruto and Hinata turned to look at one another, both of them beginning to open their mouths and speak their ideas. But as they did, they both took notice of the others lips, and immediately thoughts of what almost happened before entered their minds, causing them both to blush and quickly look away from one another.

Naruto winced slightly as he felt the full force of the warmth hit him like a tone of bricks, he could feel his urges returning, the need to stand close to her, the need to feel her touch on his skin, the need to hold her close and never let her go. He could feel his instincts urging him to her.

'_She is special to you… she is apart of you… keep her close… she needs your love…' _

Naruto shook his head at the strange thoughts/voice that seemed to pass though his mind.

"Um… yeah… Ill find h-her just give me a sec to find a different scent." Without looking at Hinata, Naruto leant over to all fours and began sniffing along the ground. He wasn't close enough to his sensei when she entered the class to get her scent, but he could easily find it by not following the ones he knew.

Shino raised an eyebrow behind his dark shades, he didn't really find Naruto's animalistic actions odd, what he did find odd was Naruto and Hinata's weird behaviour towards each other. He knew they were a little odd because of the numerus times he had seem them in his time at the academy, but today in particular they had been acting particularly different.

His musings were interrupted however, when Naruto detected a new scent, one that was never within the academy. "I think I found her, come on!" he said as he took off after the scent. Hinata and Shino quickly followed his lead while Hinata activated her Byakugan so she could continually check ahead.

As Naruto dashed from the Academy he paused momentarily to check for the scent again. He could never describe how he tracked things, but to him it was like he could actually see coloured trails of 'gas' that represented each scent. By focusing intently on the scent he could easily follow it as if it was visible to his eyes.

His ears twitched as they heard his teammates catch up before he dashed off, again following the scent. Hinata and Shino followed their hanyou teammate as he quickly led them out of the academy and down the main road of the village. Every now and again they would be led down random alleys as Naruto lost track of the scent momentarily, and it wasn't long before they ended up at the entrance to the hot springs where the scent seemed to completely disappear. Luckily Hinata could see their sensei a few hundred meters up ahead.

"I found her! She's just waiting o-over on that bridge." Hinata called out slightly nervous as lead her team to the bridge. When they all arrived their sensei just seemed to glance at them with a near blank and unreadable expression. But they could also see a hint of interest and a look of impress.

"Hey it's you from the other day! So your our new sensei? Why did you make us run after you?" Naruto demanded rather rudely while growling in annoyance, something Hinata reprimanded him for.

"N-Naruto-kun, you shouldn't yell at our new sensei. It's not nice." Hinata said as she deactivated her Byakugan. Naruto turned to his best friend and he ducked down submissively and his ears flattened down at having been lectured.

Naruto turned back slowly to apologise but was completely floored when their new sensei was nowhere in sight. Sniffing about randomly, he growled darkly when he couldn't detect a trace of her. "Argh! Where did she go now?"

In response to his question, Shino stepped forward and lifted his left arm. "She disappeared using a short range teleportation technique while you two were talking and therefore distracted." Shino noted the embarrassed movements of his two teammates made before continuing. "Luckily I placed a female of my Kikai on her before she left. I can easily find her now." Before allowing any questions from his teammates, hundreds and thousands of small black bugs known as Kikai flew out of his sleeve and hovered above him before quickly dispersing to track down their new sensei.

Naruto and Hinata had heard often of the Kikai beetles that lived within the bodies of all of the Aburame clan, but in all their time they had known Shino at the academy, they had never once seen him use them. And they had to both admit it was quite fascinating to watch the bugs fly out from his sleeve.

Looking at his teammates expecting the usual reaction of shudders, looks of disgust and horror, or plain out rejection he was quite surprised to see them looking at him rather interestedly. Naruto he could perhaps understand as he had been use to the village's prejudice for being a hanyou and therefore would never judge another person for what was different about them. But he definitely didn't expect a Hyuga to be interested in his abilities as they _were_ practically the village's royalty.

"T-That was pretty amazing Shino-san. Can your bugs really track sensei down n-no matter w-where she is?" Hinata asked, honestly intrigued. She couldn't be sure but she could have sworn she saw the faintest of smiles appear on the stoic Aburame's face.

"Yes that is correct Hyuga-san, I instructed a female of the species to attach herself to our new sensei before she disappeared. She gives off a special scent that the males can track no matter where she is. They will return shortly to give us directions." Hinata and Naruto found it odd for their new teammate to refer to her so formally and Hinata explained that it was ok for him to refer to her as Hinata. Cause after all, they were teammates.

Nodding his head in agreement, Shino then turned his head towards the sky and lifted his arm, moments later as expected a huge cloud of black bugs streamed in from various locations in the village before returning into the sleeve of their host, imparting their information.

Shino seemed to nod a few times to himself, obviously somehow conversing with his bug companions. "They have found her, follow me. And stay hidden, sensei may also be testing if we can find her without being detected."

Both Naruto and Hinata nodded before turning to follow their Aburame teammate as he dashed off in a predetermined direction. But as they did, Naruto's hand brushed against the Hinata's and by instinct both of them began to encircle their fingers together.

Naruto could feel his heart pump wildly as the hair on all four of his tails stood on end at the small contact. Such a simple thing, and yet, he found himself closing his hand tighter trying desperately to contain his feelings as he pulled Hinata to him gently.

'_She is a part of you… you are both connected…' _

The instincts urged him closer, the desire to hold her close to him almost overpowering his better judgement. He couldn't believe that such a simple thing had evoked such powerful emotions. If he wasn't convinced before, then he was now as he gazed into her confused eyes, losing himself in the beautiful pools of lavender he could barely process a thought as to what he was doing. _'Her eyes… I always said they were so beautiful, but I don't think I ever knew just how much till now…'_

Hinata jumped slightly when she felt Naruto's hand brush against her own. It was not an uncommon occurrence as they spent so much time together that they often touched hands. But there was something different this time, something powerful almost like a spark of emotion erupted between them on contact.

There was something different in the way they touched, it was his hand, his hand felt so warm and inviting and held a certain desire to it that Hinata began to unconsciously close her hand around his. She quickly noticed that his hand also began to close and was quite confused when he pulled her to him slowly.

But as she looked up into his eyes expecting some sort of explanation she froze at the emotions she saw swimming within them. So easily could she get lost in the endless sea of his eyes for hours, but right now, she would easily have fallen for him all over again. The soft way he looked at her, the gentle way he pulled her to him, and most of all the curious handsome smile he held for her all made her heart jump, and she once again found herself feeling faint in his presence.

But just like last time, Naruto was too frightened to act upon his feelings and quickly pulled his hand away and broke contact. Unfortunately causing an accident that hadn't happened for years.

Hinata screamed suddenly as she clutched her bleeding hand, causing Shino to stop running and return to his team while Naruto froze at the sight, harsh memories of the past returning to him as he watched the blood of his best friend flow from the wound on her hand.

As he pulled away, his claws cut deep into her hand. Something that hadn't happen for years. Reacting on instinct along in a desperate attempt to shut the memories away and close his nose to the scent of her blood, Naruto quickly jumped forward and grabbed his friend's hand. Pulling it close to him his concern for his best friend's health overpowered his feelings towards her and he began to slowly lick the wound.

Shino was quite disturbed by the odd action, but that quickly turned to surprise when he saw the thin, but obviously deep cut begin to slowly close over, leaving no trace of any injury.

Hinata had had her hand cut by Naruto twice in the time she had known him and each time he treated the wound the same.

But this time it was different, and for some reason it made her heart skip a beat. The way he gently held her hand to comfort her while she healed was so different to how she remembered that she couldn't help but close her eyes and sigh happily at the joy that spread through her body as her blush and heart-rate increased. _'He is so gentle and caring… If you only realised on how much I loved you Naruto-kun, then I would hold you the same way every day…'_

Even after the wound had closed Naruto still continued to hold her hand gently between his own. No words were exchanged as they locked eyes once again, the same feelings from before rushed to retuned to them both as Naruto stepped forward slightly while Hinata tried desperately to keep herself conscious, embarrassed immensely by their sheer proximity to each other as Naruto moved closer, his tails unconsciously beginning to wrap around her waist.

But Shino's voice of concern interrupted the two and brought them both back to reality, forcing Naruto to quickly drop his hold on Hinata's hand and jump back in shock at his close actions again.

"Are you ok Hinata-san? I'm not sure what happened, but it seemed Naruto-san's… _saliva_ healed your injury. That is quite the ability you possess Naruto-san." Shino asked with a hint of concern in his usually bland and controlled voice.

Hinata jumped slightly at being addressed, she was too confused at Naruto's weird actions all day that she had hardly noticed Shino had spoken to her. Naruto was really starting to worry her that he angry with her or something. And the weird emotional 'pulls' she had been feeling towards him all day weren't helping either. She had been feeling oddly enthralled by him today, well more then usual anyway, and it was confusing her.

"I'm fine thank you Shino-san. I just accidentally cut myself on Naruto-kun's claws. They are sharp enough to cut through most metal you know?"

Shino nodded his head in acknowledgement at the statement, he himself had seen Naruto cut through training dummies at the academy like they were paper and could certainly understand how his female teammate might cut herself on the hanyou's claws.

"Be more careful then Hinata-san. Now lets move, we need to find sensei before she decides to move again." He said before turning once again in the direction his Kikai beetles had told him. Completely unaware of the emotional battle each of his teammates were having with themselves as they continued to steal glances of the other.

Konoha Market Quarters – Yuu's Tea Shop

Kurenai sat patiently sipping her tea as she waited for her new genin team to arrive. That's _if_ they arrived. Admittedly she did request this team for tracking and somewhat expected them to find her, which was her self imposed test to see if they had any skill at tracking and therefore worth training. But she also wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't locate her.

After all most genin would have problems finding her at the bridge, but thanks to Naruto's nose she knew that part would be easy. But finding her the second time she did not believe would be easy. After all, she had just disappeared in front of them with a mixture of genjutsu and teleportation techniques so there was no way her scent would travel to her, and she made sure that she arrived at a location that Hinata wouldn't be able to see far enough with her Byakugan. And she knew the Kikai bugs of the Aburame clan would take time to search her down.

So she felt quite safe as she continued to drink her tea. Despite the fact that she actually wanted to teach this team as she had spent a great deal of time researching the students of this year's graduates and found each of her pupil hopefuls to be quite intriguing.

Especially the self imposed Kitsune Hanyou of Konoha, she had a small run in with him a few weeks back when she was observing him, his talents in what she considered to be genjutsu were quite interesting to her as she herself was a genjutsu specialist and the thought of teaching someone her favourite art was quite enticing.

Although the talk that she had with the Hokage about Naruto made her think that what he used that day wasn't genjutsu at all, but something completely new and different. When and if they succeeded in finding her she would have to ask him about his abilities in depth.

So occupied by her thoughts on her possible new team, she was completely un-prepared for a random waiter to drop his tray onto her table, knocking over all the food she had ordered and spilt the remaining of her tea.

"I-I-I am so sorry m-madam!" The waiter screeched in apology as he desperately attempted to clean the mess he had made of her table and order. Kurenai just nodded patiently for him to clean his mistake, she knew that accidents happened and there was no need in getting angry at the young waiter.

She soon however, found his nervousness around her a little annoying as he kept redropping the plates and cups. She could understand that a Jonin could be quite imposing to normal civilians but she was a polite person so she couldn't understand why he was so worried about her.

Deciding to help him along she reached out for one of the plates, but her eyes widened tremendously in shock as her hand passed straight through it. As she quickly recoiled it in fright, she watched on guard as the waiter and the spilt orders faded like smoke in the breeze, revealing her food and drink like it was when before the accident. _And_ to her shock, her three genin sitting together at the other side of the table.

"Wh-Ho-Whe" She stuttered out in surprise. "How did you three manage to find me here, and what was all that that just happened?" She asked the three before her in shocked curiosity.

"It is simple sensei." Shino spoke up to explain as he could tell something was bothering his two teammates. "I placed a female Kikai beetle on you we first saw you on the bridge. When you left I just used the males to track her and therefore you by her scent." He explained as he lifted a hand, directing a small pink beetle to fly out from Kurenai's Jonin jacket and back to him.

"But-But what about the whole waiter thing? Was that Genjutsu?" She asked more specifically to Naruto.

Naruto's ears perked up at the question and he gave a big proud smile as he explained his illusion. "No sensei, it wasn't Genjutsu. It was just a simple Kitsune Illusion to distract you. I thought you would know that from that one time in the forest?"

Kurenai allowed a bright smile to grace her beautiful face as she looked at the genin before him, ignoring Naruto's question momentarily. Shino from his file and from his explanation naturally seemed to be the most level headed and would be the scout and information gatherer of the team, while Naruto you could practically feel the innate and barely controlled power emanate from him and would be the ears and nose of the team. And Hinata was between the both of them, providing the balance between them and would be the eyes of the team.

Overall the team before her had the perfect makeup of a tracking team, as displayed by their ability to find her so quickly. Had she expected them so soon she would have used a few genjutsu to hide herself as well.

"Well done you three. I had my doubts that you would find me but you have proved me completely wrong and I am quite impressed. To find me was a little test to see if you had what it takes, and from now on we will be known as Team 8, a team specifically chosen to be an expert tracking team, and I Kurenai Yuuhi will be your Jonin sensei."

All three newly minted Genin of Team 8 smiled brightly at her declaration before speaking together as one. "Hai Kurenai-sensei."

"Great, now meet me at training ground 14 tomorrow at 6am and I will begin training you immediately as we get our first mission as Team 8. But first, I believe I should shout you all to lunch for finding me in such an impressive time, while we get to know each other a little better."

All three of the genin once again smiled brightly, or Kurenai assumed they did as it was really hard to tell with Shino if his face moved at all. But if she could judge by the small 'buzz' from his body he was happy.

Hinata couldn't stop smiling as she thought of what her new life would be like as a part of Team 8. She was sure that there would be many trying times, but she would try her best to never hinder or hold her team back. She would prove just how strong she is and could become regardless on what training awaited her.

Shino was quite happy with his team so far. His sensei seemed quite level headed and calm, despite the obvious underestimation she made of them with the simple test. And his teammates already began to show the one trait his family had wished everyone possessed, they accepted him regardless of the 'weird bugs' that shared his body and as such couldn't have asked for a better team placement. And he was sure that his teammates vastly different personalities would make for an interesting time.

Naruto also couldn't be happier with his team. He originally had wanted either Sasuke or Ino be on his team with him and Hinata. But he had already begun to like Shino for his interesting connection with his bug companions, and he had already liked his sensei when they first met.

The day went on rather well, with all four swapping various parts of their lives to understand one another better. Naruto telling some of his pranks in vivid detail while shouting to the world the godliness of Ramen, Shino explaining the various duties of his family and their connection with their Kikai beetles, while Hinata told everyone of her mother's garden and her love for medicinal balms and flower pressing.

Kurenai even told a little about her own days as a genin under her sensei, although she was mainly interested in her student's abilities. She was a little concerned about the odd behaviour she had noticed between Naruto and Hinata, but Sarutobi had told her about Hinata's feelings and Naruto's discovery of his own and so understood that they would be like this for a while. And as long as it didn't interfere with their training then she would probably encourage them herself.

After all, a shinobi's life is more often then not cut short. And as such every one of them must enjoy life to the fullest.

By the end of the day as they parted for their homes, they were equally excited about their future as Team 8, and all of them shared the same thought: that tomorrow would indeed be an interesting day.

Although for Naruto and Hinata, they also held concerns for both themselves and each other. Naruto was still worried that if he was correct and he had developed feelings for his best friend, then he might be risking his friendship in attempting to take their relationship further then friends. He couldn't deny the sheer happiness and joy that spread through him whenever he gazed at her or felt her touch, but he had to think of her and her feelings in this as an Angel did not deserve the insulting love of a demon. And for the first time in his life, he was genuinely nervous about talking to his best friend.

And Hinata was still concerned about her crush's strange behaviour that had started to turn into complete avoidance of her physical being, as demonstrated when he kept ducking to avoid her touch when he walked her home, something that was beginning to hurt her deeply. He may not have been meaning to do it, but his odd actions were beginning to make her really doubt herself and if Naruto would ever return her feelings, something that she couldn't describe how much it hurt her.

All in all they both were so confused about their feelings and their best friend that they both were worried that they might be distracted from their training tomorrow, and as such both mentally agreed with themselves to speak to Tohru for advice. They didn't know why, but both of them could easily discuss with Tohru what they couldn't with each other.

But amidst all their confusion and worry, they both couldn't deny the way their hearts leap and the glow that covered them both whenever they made contact with each other's beautiful eyes.


	23. Chapter 22: Team Training

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Well here is the next chapter of my fanfiction. Hopefully it will recieve a less broad response then the last as almost everyone had a different opinon on whether the last chapter was good or not, so heres to hoping that this one is better and more appreciated.

I have also have a fair number of people inquire as to why I have started the 'romantic interest' so early in their life. Well um... I think everyone is kind of forgetting that in this fanficiton, Naruto and Hinata are 14. I believe that is a fine age to start to realise ones feelings for someone you have spent so much of your life with right?

Anyway, on with this fortnights chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products, I do however own any original storyline and character in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 22: Team Training

Kurenai sat peacefully atop the surface of the lake in training ground 14, meditating on what Sarutobi had spoken to her about as she waited for her new students to arrive. She had to admit that she was a little nervous about teaching her first team, but she was sure that she would do a decent job. As long as she remembered what Sarutobi had told her.

**Flashback**

"I am glad that they passed your little test Kurenai-chan, it would have been a shame to send such talented Genin back to the academy for another year. I believe you will be a good sensei to them." Sarutobi smiled as Kurenai's face brightened at his small complement. But his face soon darkened as he turned his thoughts to more important matters that needed to be discussed with the Genjutsu Mistress in front of him.

"I want you to promise me that you will take care of those three, and make sure nothing ever happens to Hinata-chan. You must ensure her safety as an absolute, never allow great harm to come to her do you understand."

Kurenai was quite shocked at the dark demeanour that had suddenly appeared on the hokage's usual happy grandfather face. His whole being seemed to extrude power and each word he spoke seemed to burn themselves into her mind at the sheet commanding power they held. So powerful were his words that she had a hard time answering him past a nod of her head. She had no idea why he placed such importance on keeping Hinata in particular safe, sure she was the Hyuga heiress and all, but still. If anyone, Kurenai would have thought the hokage would have been most concerned about Naruto.

Sarutobi, easily sensing his subordinates discomfort and confusion at his words, lowered his tone and eased his frown, returning his face to a more comforting look before asking a question to get Kurenai thinking. "Tell me Kurenai-chan, what do you know of yokai? More specifically halfbreed Kitsune's." Sarutobi predicted Kurenai's answer of 'not a lot' and continued his explanation.

"You see Kurenai-chan, a hanyou's body is constantly fighting itself, having a mixture of human and yokai chakra causes all sorts of instabilities in their bodies and as such a great deal of control is needed to master even something as basic as walking. With Kitsune Hanyou's more specifically Naruto Uzumaki, his emotions are what govern his control over his more… primal instincts and yokai chakra. Whenever he is put under great emotional stress his control becomes haywire and he can easily draw on massive amounts of the fox's chakra. Over time he is learning to control himself as you have no doubt seen where he can 'focus' the yokai chakra into his kitsune techniques, but he is still far from perfect."

Kurenai frowned slightly at the explanation, sure it covered a few holes in her basic understanding of how Naruto's chakra worked, but it had nothing to do with Hinata.

"Hokage-sama, I mean no offence, but what does this have to do with keeping Hinata from great harm?" Sarutobi's eyes narrowed in thought as he lifted his pipe from his desk, taking a few long puffs of the salty tobacco before answering her question.

"Have you ever seen Naruto-kun angry? I doubt it. As you train him you will find that he is quite impatient and may show his impatience by shouting angrily. But he is never truly angry. There has only been three times where he had actually been angry, the first was when Hinata-chan was kidnapped. In his anger he killed the abductor, at the time he was only 6 years old. The second was when Hitomi Hyuga, Hinata's mother died, in his anger he almost killed the doctor responsible for her death and almost killed Hiashi who was just trying to get him to calm down. The third was when Mizuki attempted to murder Hinata, and in response he nearly killed him." Sarutobi watched as Kurenai connected the dots and bowed her head displaying her deep thoughts.

"So what you are saying Hokaga-sama, is that every time Naruto gets angry and uses the fox's chakra its when someone he cares for is hurt or in danger? And you want me to keep Hinata safe so that he doesn't endanger his teammates and myself?" Kurenai's voice was oddly quite, an impression that was obviously caused by the worry that was flashing through her. But Sarutobi also saw something he didn't quite like in the women's eyes, he saw fear, fear of Naruto and that is something he would not allow.

"You have no reason to fear him Kurenai-chan. He will not hurt anyone he cares about no matter how angry he gets. Kitsune naturally 'cling' to families and people that have been kind to them and will become a guardian of sorts and this trait also rings true with Naruto. So what I'm saying is that if Hinata-chan gets hurt he _will _get angry, draw on the fox's chakra and therefore could jeopardise some missions but he isn't a danger. He is safe to be around whenever drawing on the fox's chakra you will just have to be careful and remain calm around him in those instances. The reason I want you to keep Hinata safe is because if Naruto is angered enough to draw on the fox's chakra when she is hurt, imagine what he might do if she died."

Kurenai's eyes shot wide at what he was saying. She could see that Sarutobi himself wasn't particular sure what would happen, and in a way that sort of may it harder for her to take. "So-So what you're saying is that Naruto would unleash the fox if Hinata died?" She asked more for clarification then an actual question.

"No he would never intentionally unleash it, but he might unconsciously in his anger draw on so much of the fox's chakra, that it gives the fox an opportunity to escape its confinement. And from what Naruto has said to me over the years, it is _not _happy about its confinement." Sarutobi once again lifted his pipe and took a few puffs to allow Kurenai to think things over. He knew teaching a jinchiriki was a daunting prospect, but teaching a jinchirki hanyou with a crush on a Hyuga heiress was a whole different kettle of fish.

**Flashback end**

Kurenai smiled as she detected her students approaching the training ground. Despite the fact that she was still a little worried about teaching Naruto having had an even more in-depth discussion about him and his abilities after Sarutobi's warning, she still believed that she would be a great teacher to her three students.

Kurenai opened her eyes slowly to allow them to adjust to the onrush of light and waited patiently for her students to walk to her. The first to enter the training ground clearing from the surrounding forest was Shino, who slowly approached her with his hands kept in his pockets. As he got to the edge of the lake, he nodded a polite good morning before sitting down.

Admittedly he was quite curious as to how his sensei was sitting on top of the water in the very middle of the lake, but reframed from inquiring as his clan had always considered giving into curiosity a lack of self control. A lesson that a certain hanyou had obviously yet to learn if judging by the question that virtually exploded from the edge of the training ground was an indication.

Naruto and Hinata had been walking together to their new training ground talking like they normally did almost the whole way. Something that Hinata was quite happy about as Naruto had really worried her yesterday.

He had been all silent, kept looking away from her, didn't ever touch her, kept ducking from her touches. And yet today he was almost back to normal, he was loud and happy and bounced around the place like he always did. But there was still something different about him that she just couldn't place. Sure he still didn't pull her along with his hands or tails like he usually did, but for reason he seemed to meld into her touch when she grabbed him. Similarly to when a dog or cat gets their head scratched.

She had touched him a few times this morning, and each time he seemed to what could only be described as freeze up and then melt. And for some reason also seemed to really enjoy it whenever she stood closer to him, as she could practically feel his body heat up in happiness each time.

And then there was the long stares. She had caught him staring at her a few times and each time he seemed to be in an even bigger daze then the last time, almost like he was lost looking at her. It made her feel really subconscious and when she voiced her embarrassment at his stares he just replied that he was looking at her beauty like it was the most casual thing he could have said. Something that both embarrassed her greatly and made her heart leap that he thought she was beautiful.

But it was more then just a look that she saw in his eyes. It was almost like they held a certain urge, a longing, almost like he desperately wanted to say or tell her something but couldn't. She should know because after all that's the exact same look she would always see in her own eyes when she thought about him. He was still acting so odd, but at least it was a vast improvement to how he was yesterday.

But unfortunately for her, she still couldn't rid her mind of the memories of the times they had touched yesterday. The memories of how close he was to kissing her pulled at her mind, and she found herself staring wantingly at his lips more and more as they walked together. If she had just a little more courage, she might have even tried to hold his hand to see how he reacted.

Naruto himself was feeling much better then he was yesterday. He had had a long talk with his sisters, each offering unique advice to assist in his predicament. Although in a way he just wished he spoke to Yugao and Tohru, as Anko had just told him he should jump her.

After the talks he felt like a completely new hanyou, they had helped him understand what he felt and why. Which caused almost all of the confusion to disappear from him completely, leaving him filled with the most intense warmth he had ever felt. Tohru and Yugao had explained to him that by the way he had explained his emotions to them meant that he had undoubtedly held these feelings for Hinata for quite some time and had only now just realised what he felt when he thought she had been taken away.

As the Tohru had told him, '_You never realise what you have until think you have lost it.'_

And as he had been able to allow himself to fully realise his feelings Naruto could barely keep his eyes off his friend and admire her gracefulness as she walked, the shine of her smile, the melodica sound of her laughter, and her sheer natural beauty. To Naruto, she was the earthly embodiment of an Angel, she was perfect in every way to him and he couldn't believe how lucky he was to have a friend such as her.

And despite what he tried to reason with himself, he loved her, wholely and completely. His heart an indication of his love as he could feel it skip a beat at her every touch. He would tell her how he felt, just like how his sisters had told him too, but he would wait a little longer and in the mean time he would show his love for her in any way he could, he needed to prove that he was worthy to love her so that he wouldn't consider it an insult to her to give her his love.

Arriving at the designated training ground, both Naruto and Hinata stood in shock as they saw their teammate sitting quietly on the edge of the lake, while their sensei was actually sitting on the _water_.

"WHOA! THAT IS SO COOL KURENAI-SENSEI! TEACH ME HOW TO DO THAT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!" Naruto yelled like a fog horn as he dashed towards his teacher. Thinking it might be some sort of jutsu on the lake he cautiously tried to place a single foot on the water, but alas, it kept sinking.

Kurenai raised an eyebrow as she watched her hanyou student attempt to stand on the water. His virtual explosion of an announcement was a little irritating as the volume was far from a comfortable level, but she found his enthusiasm refreshing.

"Yes Naruto-kun I will teach you all how to walk on water eventually.-" She almost laughed when he stared at her wide eyed with his mouth hanging open as she stood up and began walking on the water's surface towards him. And by the time she reached the water's edge he was practically bowing and worshipping the ground before her. "-But I won't teach it to you today, you first must understand the basics before I teach you this."

Naruto's tails fell to the ground as he lowered his head in a childish pout. And Hinata, thinking he was actually upset, shyly put her hand on her crush's shoulder for comfort. She 'eep'ed a little in fright when he jumped suddenly at her touch, before his head snapped up and turned to look at her, a strange dreamily look plastered across his face as he smiled brightly, his tails now wagging happily. And his odd reaction was causing her to blush profusely. _'His smile is always so handsome…'_

Kurenai and Shino watched the pair with odd fascination. Kurenai mainly because she was studying them carefully to see if their 'feelings' towards each other might cause problems in their training. While Shino was watching the interaction between his teammates to observe and analyse why they were acting the way they were. And from what he could tell, Hinata had a massive crush on Naruto but was too afraid to tell him and visa versa.

Naruto and Hinata were too busy gazing into the beauty of the other's eyes to notice the odd looks they were receiving from the rest of their team. And even before they realised it, they began to slowly drift closer to each other, one of Naruto's tails wrapping affectionately around Hinata's wrist.

"Naruto, Hinata if you two are done doing whatever it is you two are doing, then I have a training exercise for you three." She said while glancing casually at her three students. Shino just stood up while Naruto and Hinata jumped apart from each other not even looking at the other as they tried desperately to focus on something other then how close they just were.

'_I can't keep doing that to her. I'll end up freaking her out or something if I do get too close to her. Urgh! This burning feeling to hold her is driving me crazy! I have to learn to control how I feel when around her, just like Tohru-neechan said. I can't risk scaring her or making her feel uncomfortable.'_ Naruto berated himself as he turned his ears towards his sensei as she spoke, forcing himself to focus on his sensei alone.

'_That look in his eyes… what was it? It… It was really wonderful; it was just like yesterday when I thought he was going to kiss me. Oh why can't I tell him how I feel, then he would at least know.'_ Hinata couldn't believe the burning ache she felt in her heart, every time she stood close to him she felt it ache as it tried to force its way from her chest. She loved him so completely and yet she couldn't tell him how she felt even after all these years.

To her, Naruto was the most perfect person in the world, he was kind, happy, and always so nice to her, she knew he craved love and family as was indicated everyday when named someone new as a surrogate family member. She knew he needed love but she also truly felt he deserved someone more confident then her.

"Alright you three, even though we discussed your abilities yesterday I still need to see demonstrations. The easiest way would be a few sparing sessions. Naruto-kun, you will spar against me first." An excited and purely devilish foxy grin grew on Naruto's face at the announcement, revealing an impressive array of sharp teeth while his tails flicked to mimic his excitement.

"Now Hinata-chan, Shino-kun, you two can wait at the edge of the clearing, Naruto-kun you may start whenever you are ready." Kurenai said calmly as she stepped off of the lake completely and walked to the centre of the clearing.

Naruto didn't want to give his sensei even a second of a chance to prepare as she said he could start when _he _was ready. So as she walked away from him to the centre he quickly pulled on his yokai chakra, mixing it with his own and melding it with three quick handsigns he then loudly announced his jutsu with his hands outstretched and at the same time began charging towards his sensei.

"Kitsune Art: Fox Fire Jutsu!"

Slightly surprised at the massive amount of chakra she felt virtually explode from behind her and spun around to face her student as he announced his technique. She watched in awe at the cone of mystical blue flames that arced towards her, she had heard stories of the beauty of a kitsune's fox fire, but the tales were like a dim candle to the incomprehensible sight before her. She could tell the flames were powerful, and was amazed that a mere genin was able to perform such a technique, but she wasn't a jonin for nothing and she would not be intimidated by such a jutsu.

Naruto ceased his running as he saw his jutsu completely engulf his sensei, his eyes widened in shock as fear that he may have just killed his sensei gripped his heart. The flames quickly died down after the initial impact revealing a scorched patch of ground and the deeply charred corpse of Kurenai in the centre.

Naruto fell to his knees in shock at what had happened as tears quickly built up in eyes. He had only thought his jutsu would be a distraction to his sensei, and yet here he was, kneeing in shock a mere twenty meters away from her corpse. But before he could really comprehend what had just happened, the corpse faded into the air before he felt an immense pain erupt in his head as Kurenai's foot kicked him a few good meters.

"Rule 1 in Shinobi Ccombat Naruto-kun: Never let an enemy get behind you." She said as she stood up straight and watched Naruto scramble off the ground, nursing his pounding head. "And Rule 7 in Shinobi Combat: Never believe your enemy to be defeated by a single technique. Now that especially applies if the person you are facing knows Genjutsu Naruto-kun, you fell for such a simple Genjutsu far too easily."

Naruto didn't like being tricked so easily, especially considering he was a half Kitsune, whom are the masters of trickery. And quickly became visibly pissed off at his own inability as he shouted out in announce that he had fallen for something so stupid. His anger allowing him to quickly pull on more of his yokai chakra and perform his next technique.

"Kitsune Art: Muliple Fox Fireballs!" Kurenai watched in fascination as she felt Naruto's chakra literally burst open like floodgates as he powered another technique. She watched with calculating eyes as 15 large blue fireballs launched at her at increasing velocity, they covered a rather large area and probably would have been hard to dodge and as such she just used a simple replacement jutsu with a nearby log to easily avoid them. However, the flames still struck the training grounds ignite them in blue flames.

Naruto grinned his usual foxy grin as he watched his sensei swap herself with a log, and within seconds immediately jumped left to avoid an attack that his ears had heard coming. Spinning around to face his sensei as she tried to follow up with a roundhouse kick again to her pupil's head Naruto just lunged forward and made a quick swipe with his clawed hand.

Kurenai allowed Naruto to try and attack her a fair few times with his claws, dodging each one with ease as she analysed his taijutsu style. From what she could see it look a little bit like the style the Inuzuka's use judging by the wild claw slashes, but Naruto seemed to be rather reckless in his attacks. Having no real form at all.

Kurenai sidestepped a particularly reckless strike before delivering a solid punch to the hanyou's head. Imagine her shock when her hand passed through Naruto as did her whole body as she overbalanced. Quickly turning around in shock, she stared wide eyed as Naruto was nowhere in sight. That is, until the fiery inferno that was burning the training grounds from Naruto's last fox fire jutsu dissipated into nothingness, almost like it was never their. Revealing Naruto standing in the middle of the training grounds with a big foxy grin.

"Wait. Was all that just a genjutsu Naruto?" Kurenai may have sounded kind of impressed, but on the inside she was fuming. They may have only been fighting for less then a minute but if it _was_ genjutsu and she had missed it then she had no right to call herself a genjutsu master.

"Hehe, nah it wasn't genjutsu sensei. It was just my kitsune illusions, remember I explained that too you yesterday. According to what my book says-" He began as he pulled out his book on Kitsunes out of his sleeve, shocking his teammates that such a large book had just appeared out of such a small sleeve.

"-Genjutsu works by entering chakra into your opponents mind and manipulating their senses, you can do anything to them, make them hear things, see things, feel things, even imitate pain. But my Kitsune Illusions are different. They are _real_ illusions if that makes sense, they don't exist and yet everyone can see them like that are part of real life. But begin illusions means they can't actually do anything, which means you can't actually feel them or get hurt by them. Look I'll show you-"

Quickly placing his book back into his sleeve, still confusing everyone but Kurenai on how he did it, then flashed through four quick handsigns and announced one of his illusionary techniques.

"Kitsune Illusion: Illusionary Clones!" almost immediately a second Naruto began to form out of nowhere, it just seemed to faze into existence right next to Naruto.

"You see sensei, this illusion is like the Clone Jutsu that they teach at the academy, except it can't be dispelled by contact, and as an illusion it can't really do anything because anything it does… well it's just not real." Naruto frowned slightly at his explanation, it sounded kind of childish and uninformative and decided to just show instead of explain. He liked his illusion however as he used it to pass the academy's exam.

Kurenai watched in curiosity as the illusionary copy of Naruto began walking towards her, but instead of stopping in front of her it simply continued walking passing right through her and appearing on the other side. Turning around she saw the illusion grin at her before fading from existence in the same way it had entered.

She had to admit, she was impressed. Although it was a shame that they couldn't imitate pain like her genjutsu could or make them think they are being held by something. She could definitely see the usefulness in illusions that are almost like real life.

Hearing his explanation and actually seeing an illusion of him pass through her immediately allowed her to connect the dots that she couldn't figure out about the day she had met him.

**Flashback**

Kurenai quickly dashed forward and followed her target into the thick forest underbush. She had been following the students of the academy for a few days now, carefully shadowing them and learning as much as she could.

It was usually quite odd to shadow another person of Konoha but Kurenai had a purpose, she wanted to teach a team of genin and the Hokage had designated to her the role of a tracking team. It wasn't really her first choice of team role but none the less the prospect of teaching such a team was still quite intriguing.

So far she had found a number of students that would suit a tracking team well. The first was a young girl called Hinata Hyuga, the girl was a little shy for Kurenai's taste but she could easily tell the girl possessed a heart of pure gold and would be a delight to teach. Hinata's purpose on the team would be advanced scoting, a task that she would easily be able to perform with her Byakugan.

The next student was a boy named Kiba Inuzuka. Although the boy seemed a little rash and short tempered she could easily see he was a compassionate individual, as demonstrated by his friendship to his ninja hound Akamaru. His role would easily be as the head tracker of the team because of his superior sense of smell and from having the assistance of a dog who could smell and hear better then any human.

The next potential student was an Aburame named Shino. Kurenai wasn't able to get a lot of information on him as he always seemed to keep to himself, but she knew from past experiences on both the battle prowess of the Aburame clan and their ability to search down their targets over vast landmass with the help of their Kikai beetles. His role on the team would be as a perimeter and advance scout.

And now comes down to the last potential student and the reason she was actually running through these horrible woods. Naruto Uzumaki. The apparently self named Kitsune Hanyou of Konoha was probably one of the most intriguing to Kurenai. Originally she had thought him just a standard academy student with some foxy features thanks to the Nine Tailed Fox sealed within him. But as she had been observing Hinata, and by default Naruto as well as the two never seemed to go anywhere without the other, she had began to notice that Naruto always seemed to be acutely aware of her watching them.

Whether he just point at her hiding location randomly, flick his ears in her direction or just stare patiently but menacingly at her he just always seemed to know where she was hiding. From what she had gathered Naruto's sense of hearing was so immense that he was able to follow her and track her down just by listening to her heartbeat. And his sense of smell was rivalling that of, well… a fox.

In her interest of him and how he always knew where she was she decided to approach the boy casually and inquiry about his abilities, if his explanation matched up with her analysis then he would be an invaluable member of her team. But as she had approached him he took off even before she had a chance to speak to him. She tried to follow him but his abilities allowed him to always know where she was and thus had caused her current predicament of following him into the surrounding forests of Konoha.

She had been following the teenage hanyou through the forest for a few minutes before she completely lost track of him, it was infuriating that a mere genin could see easily hide from a jonin but given the affinity he obviously had for forests it was sort of understandable.

A small flicker of colour caught the attention of her keen red eyes and quickly leapt down from the trees she was jumping through and landed in a small clearing. The clearing wasn't what caught her attention though, it was the odd aged cottage in the middle and the fair feeling on Naruto's chakra that was interesting. It was nothing particularly extravagant, just a small wood based cottage with a stone chimney, on the outside it looked quite odd and worn but Kurenai could tell that it was probably quite a cosy little place. And because she could feel Naruto's charka she was sure he was hiding within.

Walking slowly up to the cottage door, Kurenai prepared to knock politely when the door was opened from within, revealing a small and frail old woman in her mid 80's looking up at her with a suspicious but hospitous smile.

"Is there something I can help you with my dear?" The old lady asked politely. A tired and old look passing across her wrinkled face.

Kurenai thought it quite odd to see someone living alone this deep in Konoha's forest but did not want to say anything as she didn't want to come across as rude. "My name is Kurenai Yuuhi and I am looking for a young boy called Naruto Uzumaki, also known as Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou. You wouldn't have happen to seen him pass by would you?"

The smile on the old lady's quickly disappeared and her face darkened as a scowl took its place. Obviously she was upset by the mention of Naruto.

Standing back and holding the door open, she beckoned Kurenai inside and directed her to a seat at the table, while sitting down on the opposite side. Kurenai personally thought the seat felt kind of weird but again reframed from saying anything rude while a guest in another person's home.

Overall she had been correct about the cosy feeling of the little cottage. It was old yes, but held a certain happy and cheerful atmosphere about it. It was a single room house having just a single bed, a stove, a fireplace and two chairs on either side of a table in the middle. Kurenai would have admired the place a little longer, but the old woman who still hadn't introduced herself pulled her from her thoughts.

"What do you know of Naruto Uzumaki?" Despite the woman's aged and croaky voice, it seemed to hold a sort of commanding edge, similarly to when a mother is demanding to know how her child got his new cloths dirty and Kurenai felt herself feelings oddly like she was being interrogated. But if she wanted to find Naruto then answering this old woman might be her only way.

"Not much apart from the basics that everyone knows. He is the jincuuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox and was turned into a Kitsune hanyou through the sealing. He is the last member of the Uzumaki clan and therefore its clan head and is one of the only people apart from the Uchiha clan head to hold a decent relationship with the Hyuga clan. He also seems to possess the amazing hearing and sense of smell of a fox. Why do you ask, you seem oddly suspicious of my questions of his whereabouts?" The old lady shifted slightly in discomfort at the forwardness of Kurenai's demands and returned her question with a glare.

"That boy is constantly plagued by the people of this village. They hate him, have no respect for him and frequently and publicly display their ill feelings for the poor young man. He is a good boy, someone who suffers from the ignorance of others, he has been good to me over the years and I will not let you hurt him like they always do! He told me that a person had been following him around so what is it you want with him!" She snapped the last part as she stood suddenly, showing slightly that although age hadn't been kind to her she was still of decent ability. Perhaps even showing that she may have been a kunoichi in her younger years.

Kurenai, shocked by the old woman's sudden movements, quickly shifted her hand to her weapons pouch. She doubted the old woman would actually attack her but she still needed to defuse the situation before it got out of hand. "You misunderstand me. I mean no harm to Naruto Uzumaki, I am looking for him as I wish to ask some questions about his abilities." She pleaded in a genuine and polite tone, hoping to calm the old lady down.

"LIES! There have been people who have come up with better tricks so they can get close to him. Do you know what it feels like to have to live trusting no one by a few select people! I will not let you near him!" Reaching for a pan that was on the kitchen bench she glared angrily at Kurenai while pointing towards the front door, indicating that Kurenai was no longer welcomed in her home.

Kurenai's eyes widened as she saw the woman pick up a frying pan. Although she had nothing to actually fear from the make-shift weapon or the old woman, she really needed to find Naruto as this was her last day to learn anything about him. "Please! I am being completely honest, I mean him no harm. I wish to find him and learn about his abilities as I believe he might make an excellent team member for my genin team. I wish to be his sensei. Please believe me when I say this, I have even had a few missions when I was a Chunin to guard his house."

The old lady stopped at hearing this, or it was more the look in Kurenai's eyes that stopped her. Placing the pan down slowly she visibly relaxed and a big smile formed on her aged and wrinkled face. "That's what I was looking for Kurenai-san, I can see it in your eyes. You truly do mean him no harm, and if what you say is true then I believe he may be quite happy to meet his possible future sensei."

Kurenai breathed out deeply in relief and smiled back at the old woman before her. She was about to thank her and ask again for Naruto's location when she noticed that the woman and her surrounding house began to slowly haze up. Before her very eyes the entire house began to disappear completely from view, vanishing into wisps of wind before leaving not a trace of ever having been their. The woman disappeared along with the house, vanishing into wisps of coloured wind the last thing to completely disappear was her satisfied smile.

Kurenai once again found herself in the clearing although where she originally sat on a nice wooden chair she found herself sitting on a cut down tree-stump. And where the old lady was before vanishing stood a smiling brightly hanyou. His tails waving gently as his golden hair blew in the sudden breeze that had 'blown' away the cosy cottage.

"Hello Kurenai-san, I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

**Flashback End**

"So… So that was all an illusion back then in the forest? But, But it was so real, I thought I was really talking to that woman." Kurenai said in slight amazement while Naruto's foxy grin just increased.

"Hehe, yer it was. You see kitsune's can make life-like illusions of absolutely anything they can imagine. I just separate each illusion I have thought up into separate jutsu as it makes it a lot easier for me to concentrate on and perform. That one I used back at the forest was a completely spontaneous illusion and took a lot of chakra and concentration, I almost lost control of it a fair few times." Naruto explained. His ever present foxy grin still plastered across his face.

Kurenai nodded in appreciation of his skills while thinking heavily on their practical use. She knew that despite being able to create anything that he could imagine, separating them down was a very good practice while his control was weak. Genjutsu worked a similar way so she could understand why he did it, most of her genjutsu were 'separate' jutsu but if she had enough time to prepare she could create her genjutsu to do practically anything.

"Alright Naruto-kun, we shall spar a little more later on. From what I could see you have pretty good control over your kitsune abilities but your taijutsu form was absolutely horrible… although we only sparred in your illusion so it wouldn't be an accurate analysis. Hinata-chan you're up next." She beckoned to her only female student while dismissing Naruto to take a break.

Although he chose to stand on the sidelines and cheer his best friend on instead.

With Sasuke, Kiba and Sakura

Sasuke sighed in heavy frustration as he glanced at the sun again to judge the current time. _'Urgh… Kakashi-sensei is two hours late. Why did I get stuck with a lazy sensei?'_ Sasuke moaned to himself, slightly jealous of Naruto's sensei as he once again pushed Sakura off of his arm.

Naruto had visited him and his mother last night for dinner and wouldn't stop bragging on how awesome his new sensei was. It wasn't the bragging that annoyed Sasuke as he expected it from his hanyou best friend, it was more that he COULDN'T brag back. His sensei was the last to pick up their team yesterday by THREE HOURS.

At first it didn't bother him as he could only guess what important stuff had kept him, but where Naruto's new sensei treated them all to lunch his new sensei got them to explain things about themselves before ditching them completely and telling them to be at the training ground 7 by 6am.

And it was almost 8am now and his new sensei still hadn't shown himself! To make matter's worse Sasuke wasn't particularly happy with his team either. Turning to glance away from Sakura who was staring at him with little hearts in her eyes he groaned when he saw Kiba playing fetch with Akamaru.

He didn't particularly dislike Kiba because he had to be honest and say the Inuzuka had a lot of talent as a shinobi and was the only person apart from Naruto who gave him a run for his money in taijutsu spars. But because of Kiba's constant fights with Naruto, Sasuke found it hard to consider him a friend. But for the sake of the team and his sanity Sasuke decided to wander over and start a conversation with the energetic Inuzuka.

He wasn't particularly pleased when Sakura followed him over, trying desperately to hang onto his arm again.

"Hey Kiba, do you have any idea why our Kakashi-sensei is taking so long?" Sasuke inquired while pushing Sakura off of his arm for the thousandth time.

Kiba stopped throwing the small stick to Akamaru and turned to face his new teammate, a suspicious glare marking his face. He too wasn't really happy about his new teammates but after the explanation Kakashi gave them the other day he guessed he would have to get use to it. Team 7 was selected to be a First Attack Team, built for quick attacks on the front line of most missions. It made sense to Kiba after he thought about the fighting style of himself and Sasuke, but Sakura made no sense to him something he voiced his opinion of. According to Kakashi, Sakura was selected because she showed great promise in the field of Genjutsu and Medical Ninjutsu, something that was invaluable to any assault team as she would be their support while they destroyed the enemy.

It made sense to him, but he still wished that it wasn't Sakura as she annoyed the hell out of him and always said he smelt like wet dog. But if Sasuke at least wanted to be civil with him then at least he might have one friend on his new team.

"No idea. Akamaru said he still can't smell him anywhere near by so I can only wonder what's keeping him. If anything he is probably setting up for the test." He said while sitting down, scratching Akamaru behind the ears.

Sasuke nodded at his teammate's answer, it was logical he guess as Kakashi had said they would be having a test today to see if they were worth teaching. And that was something that just annoyed him even more, Naruto's new sensei had already given them a test and was probably already doing missions by now!

Deciding it was best to just not care and wait for his sensei, Sasuke followed Kiba's actions and just sat down on the cool grass crossing his legs and frowning slightly when Sakura sat right next to him. _'At least she didn't grab my arm again, when is she going to stop being such a fangirl.'_

It wasn't that Sasuke disliked all the attention and affection he received from the majority of the female populace his age, quite the contrary in fact as any guy likes to be adored by women, it was more that none of them actually took to time to really get to know him and understand him. To them he was more just like a piece of meat, a prize if you would, a handsome prize but still just a prize none the less. They all just wanted him for his good looks and status as the Uchiha clan head, so he doubted any of them truly loved him. In that department he was actually quite jealous of his best friend.

He wasn't jealous of the fact that Hinata Hyuga held a crush for his best friend, he was more jealous of the actual feelings she held for him. Anyone, absolutely anyone but Naruto could easily tell the true feelings of love she had for him, and it was this real love Sasuke was a little jealous over as none of his fangirls held the level of real affection that Hinata held for Naruto. It annoyed him immensely that his best friend was too dense to see the feelings she had for him but in a way he sort of found it funny, and quite ironic considering that Kitsunes are suppose to be wise.

Bringing himself out of his self reflection Sasuke was about to continue talking with his new teammates when their teacher Kakashi appeared before them in a burst of smoke, the same small orange book they had seen him reading yesterday still present in his hand.

"Yo." That was all he said as the smoke around him slowly cleared. Almost like he didn't expect an outburst from his new students at his tardiness he raised an eyebrow as all three of them shouted their disproval of his actions.

"YOU LATE SENSEI!" They all yelled in unison. Sasuke was especially irritated as being a clan head had taught him the importance of showing up on time, especially when others were waiting on you. He probably would have spoken up and said more, but his pinkette teammate beat him too it.

"Why are you so late sensei? We have been waiting for more then two hours!" She was slightly worried that her new sensei would be annoyed with her disrespectful tone but she had noticed the looks of annoyance on her crush's face all morning over their new sensei's lateness and so glanced in his direction to see if he approved of her actions.

Kakashi just chuckled mirthfully at her outburst, slowly putting his book away in his jacket pocket as he quickly thought of an excuse for his lateness. "I'm sorry Sakura, but I decided to try and find a new and quicker route here but I ended up just getting lost on the road of life." He replied seriously, but chuckled again when he saw the heated glares the three genin before him were sending him.

Before he allowed them any time to reply he quickly withdrew two small bells attached to equally small separate strings. Seeing the confused faces on the three genin at his actions he decided to elaborate. "These two bells are the goal of the survival test I was going to give you. Your objective is to take a bell from me before noon, you will have to use everything you have learnt at the academy and come at me with the intent to kill. Those of you that manage that will pass and officially be a part of Team 7. Those who don't will be sent back to the academy." He started off his explanation rather carefree and casual sounding. The he finished the final sentence with a sharp edge, a small undertone showing his seriousness in the threat.

The three genin all froze at his threat and immediately began to think of stategies to get the bells, fearing being sent back to the academy for another year. Sakura, being the brightest brains of the trio had immediately noticed an oddity in her sensei's explanation. "Sensei, if we need to get the bells to pass then why have you only got two bells when there is three of us?"

Kakashi just once again chuckled before darkening his voice, the only visible parts of his face narrowing to give an evil and foreboding glare. "That's simple Sakura. It just means that one of you will be guarantied to fail and sent back to the academy. We are shinobi of the leaf Sakura. We can't afford to have weaklings within our ranks and this is just one way that we weed them out.-" He paused just momentarily to withdraw a small kitchen time and quickly set its alarm.

"-You have till exactly noon when this bell rings to get a bell each. Those who don't will not only fail the test but will also be tied to a post while the other's eat their lunch in front of you."

Sasuke's eyed widened tremendously at the last threat, while he could usually go without lunch today would be different as Kakashi had told them yesterday not to eat breakfast so that they wouldn't puke when doing the test, but it was all just a ploy to weaken them. Three loud stomachs grumbled in unision, showing that all three of them had listened to Kakashi's 'advice'.

"Alright you three, as I said before you must come at me with the intent to kill otherwise you will never get a bell. You may begin….. NOW!" As he sounded the start of the test by turning the clock on, the three genin that were before him quickly disappeared in a flash as they took cover in the surrounding forest. Readying themselves to strike. _'Hmm… At least they are good at hiding themselves.'_ Kakashi was mildly impressed but regardless of the fact that he couldn't see them, he could still feel where they were by simple chakra sensing.

Sasuke peered out from behind the tree that was providing him covered and glared at their sensei. Something about this whole test seemed odd, cause by only have two bells it would cause infighting within the team on who should become a full genin. But what possible benefit would that give his sensei? What reason would he have for doing such a thing? Sasuke didn't know, but he did know that something was seriously off about the test as Naruto had told him all about the test his sensei had given them and it was so much easier and had no risks of being sent back to the academy or that one of the team would be guarantied to fail. Naruto's team's test was to find their sensei while Sasuke's was to basically defeat a Jonin level ninja to get a bell, an impossible task.

"My mother had warned me about you Kakashi-sensei… I'll find out what it is your up to." Sasuke muttered quietly to himself as he began to study his teacher from his hiding location. He couldn't lose and be sent back to the academy. He had to continue to grow stronger, stronger for his brother and for his clan. He would not lose!

In a random shinobi tavern, in a rather seedy location in Konoha, three Jonin level kunoichi were drinking away their sorrows. Sorrows that were caused by the Hokage's decision on if they could train a certain Hanyou and Hyuga pair. Well… Anko was drowning her sorrows with every ounce of sake the bartender would supply her with while Yugao was just having a casual drink and Tohru was just drinking.

So all in all Anko was completely wiped while Tohru was slightly tipsy, something that was amusing to Yugao in particular as she always found it extremely funny that a Hyuga's usual pupiless eyes will appear to develop a small pink pupil when drunk. Similarly to when they use the Byakugan.

All three of them as pissed off as the other though, as no matter which way you take it they were pretty much rejected by the Hokage as suitable sensei's for Naruto and Hinata, something that hurt them a lot. Despite the fact that he would never have meant to upset them as the Hokage was like a grandfather to each of them and he loved everyone in the village.

"Urgh… I say we 'hic' burn that book collection 'hic' that he loves so much." Anko slurred while reaching out several times to grab another bottle of sake, missing several times before finally succeeding. "Or I could 'hic' get my snakes to eat his balls for a 'hic' midnight snack." Before Yugao or Tohru could stop her, the Snake Mistress held to bottle of sake to her mouth and down its entire contents, and as she leaned back to consume it all she fell of her stool completely and passed out even before she hit the ground.

"Hmph, damn it, she always does that. Now we are going to have to carry her home again, who will do it this time? I did it last time and almost got eaten by one of her pet pythons. 'Non-venomous cute slithers' my fucking arse." Yugao rarely every cursed in the presence of anyone as it was unbecoming of any Anbu, but when she was a bit tipsy or really pissed off about something she would quite often let the words slip. Sadly she was both.

"I'll do it I guess. She probably planned to overdrink from the start, you know how she feels about this, she wanted to teach Naruto and Hinata more then any of us." Yugao nodded in understand as she took a small sip of her drink, she understood on how hurt and upset Anko was as they were all hoping to teach the blond hanyou and the Hyuga heiress. But with Anko it was perhaps a little more personal and hurtful, mainly because of her relationship with the Hokage.

She held a similar 'grandfather' relationship with the Hokage as Naruto did, although for vastly different reasons. When she had been found abandoned by her traitorous sensei and returned to Konoha everyone treated her with the same disdain as they did her sensei, believing that she was still allied or controlled by him. She was ostracised from society completely, having everyone turn on her, people start and continue horrible rumours, refuse her entry into all public shops and restaurants. After a few months of living in fear for her own life in her own hometown, Anko was borderline suicidal having forsaken any hope of ever being accepted by anyone ever again. And if wasn't for Sarutobi then she wouldn't be here today.

Where everyone hated her and wanted nothing to do with her, Sarutobi had personally taken time out of his very busy life to talk to her, comfort her, listen to her fears and hold her gently as she cried out all of her hurt and pent up anger at the village. He had offered her friendship where everyone else rejected her completely, hoping that she would just vanish from existence. He gave her a meaning to live, a goal to achieve in life and he helped her return to her former self. In the time she had got to know him she had come to realise on how important he had become to her and he was the very first person after her sensei that she truly trusted and respected. He was like the grandfather she never had.

It was this respect and love that had driven Anko to continue her career as a ninja, and she put her heart and soul into everything she did to improve herself for the better. Every time she trained, every mission she completed successfully, every person she helped crack in the Torture and Interrogation department was devoted her him. To show and prove to him that she was deserving of his friendship and comfort for so many years and a worthy 'granddaughter'.

And it was this love that caused her current heartache. By Sarutobi choosing Kurenai to be Naruto and Hinata's sensei over her, broke her heart and made her feel like she wasn't good enough to be considered as a sensei. He accepted her when no one else would, and she felt like she had failed him somehow by not being good enough. Anko knew that Sarutobi would never actually think like that, and that he really did care for her, but it still hurt her deeply.

Yugao sighed before quickly finishing her drink and signalling to Tohru that she would be leaving now. The three of them had grown quite close and frequently had 'girls day out' like this. Although this one for obvious reasons was far from as fun as the other times.

Tohru nodded in understanding, leaving a number of bills to pay for the tab as she stood up and began to heave the passed out Anko over her shoulder. Leaving the tavern together, Yugao kept up a small conversation about her new boyfriend as they both carted Anko back to her apartment.

Tohru had to admit that she was kind of jealous that Yugao got herself a steady boyfriend, she had seen the guy once and had to admit that he was quite the catch. But regardless of her slight jealousy she was still very happy for her friend as Yugao needed someone to fill her heart with life to help her deal with the emotional strain of being an Anbu.

"I'm kind worried about him though as his coughing problem seems to be getting worse. He keeps saying that it is hereditary and that it isn't fatal but I still reall-" Yugao was cut off when a fellow Anbu member appeared before them in a burst of smoke before handing them a small sealed letter.

"I hope I am not interrupting ladies, but Lord Hokage requested that I deliver this message to you. And for me to tell you that he wishes to speak with you right away regarding a special compromise with the training of one Naruto Uzumaki and one Hinata Hyuga." Quicky spoke the Boar Anbu before disappearing the same way he appeared.

Anko, miraculously cured of her drunken stupor and unconsciousness from the mention of her two favourite gakis, leapt out of Tohru's hold and seized the delivered letter from Yugao. Immaturely ripping the envelope to shreds with her teeth before reading the letter three times over.

"ALL RIGHT! GO YOU OLD MAN, MAYBE I WON'T BURN THAT BOOK COLLECTION OF YOURS AFTER ALL!"

Yugao and Tohru both sighed at her childish antics as she quickly sped away from them towards the Hokage Tower. Curiosity pulled at their minds as they wondered what was written within the letter to cause such a reaction from their snake loving friend. However, Anko had taken the letter with her so they had no choice but to chase after her, blatantly refusing to acknowledge the weird looks they were receiving from the surrounding villagers. They would also have to ask their friend on what was this book collection of the Hokage's that she kept referring to.

With Team 8

Kurenai was very impressed as she dodged yet another one of Hinata's outstanding gentle fist strikes. She had versed many Hyuga in the past, one of them in particular was the only person who gave her trouble in her Chunin exam.

Shifting quickly to the right and throwing a simple punch, Kurenai watched in fascination as Hinata twisted back on herself and allowed the punch to pass completely over her before she quickly flicked out with her foot. Kurenai, despite her amazement at her students flexibility, easily say the simple kick and just jumped out of the way to obtain some distance from her student.

Kurenai didn't even bother to shift into a fighting stance, she didn't need to fight seriously as her new students were only genin. What she wanted to really do was just observe and analyse them, as one can gain more insight into a person's character when sparing with them then almost any amount of personal chat. And she would also find out what she needed to teach them.

Looking over at her only female student she couldn't help but smile. Hinata looked absolutely exhausted as she returned into the default stance of the gentle fist, panting heavily as sweat poured from her face. Kurenai had knocked the girl down a few times during their spar and she could see a few bruises forming already. But the amazing thing was that Hinata just kept getting back up, Kurenai could see that numerous times in the girl's eyes that she just wanted to give up, to quit and give into her exhaustion. But it seemed every time the girls will started to falter, her eyes and mind would sharpen once again and she would attack once more with revitalized energy every single time she heard Naruto call out to her to 'kick their sensei's butt'.

While Kurenai definitely decided to reprimand Naruto later on his comments about kicking her posterior, she also had to admit that she liked to see the confidence he brought Hinata.

Watching them encourage each other was truly an interesting sight, as Hinata was a very insecure and shy girl by nature as was proven by Kurenai's shadowing of her a few weeks back. But as she sparred with the girl she couldn't believe on how much confidence and spirit that just hearing Naruto's voice instilled in Hinata. It was like he was her source of life and that every time he spoke comforting and encouraging words she would just spring up and continue to fight. She had never seen such a display of close friendship and obvious love between two people, and she was very glad that she made sure to team them together.

Obviously one of Hinata's ways of trying to show her affection to the dense hanyou was to prove on how strong she was and that she would never give up. It was a rather cute sight really.

She soon began to notice Hinata's legs beginning to shake quite bad and decided to end the sparring session, she was impressed by her will and her drive to keep going despite her exhaustion. A trait that she had, according to Sarutobi, developed from Naruto.

"Alright Hinata-chan that's enough. You did very well indeed, I am quite impressed by your proficiency with the Gentle Fist style. Your father and the elders of your clan must have taught you well." Kurenai complemented with a smile as she began walking to the young Hyuga. Stopping just in front of the panting girl Kurenai placed a hand on the Hinata's shoulder, causing said girl to relax out of her fighting stance.

"Your attacks with your palms however seemed a little off, almost like you were purposely bending a little too far. I'm not sure if it is a bad habit or just the way you fight but it seems to work rather well with your impressive flexibility. Your stamina is also impressive as we have been sparing for just over an hour and despite the fact I rarely struck back it is very amazing as you didn't halt your assault once."

Hinata was virtually glowing at her sensei's approval of her skills, she was so use to being downtrodden by the elders of her clan that whenever anyone approved of her, especially Naruto, her happiness would sky rocket. Slowly standing straight Hinata smiled brightly at her sensei and went to thank her for her praise, but as she began to bow she felt the blood quickly run from her head and the world begin to darken as her body started to slip into unconsciousness from the exhaustion.

Kurenai noticed her student's body begin to fall and instantly went to catch her, but was shocked when Naruto burst forward from the sidelines of the training ground and actually catching Hinata before her, a concerned and clearly worried expression adjourning his slightly feral looking face.

Hinata groaned slightly as she felt the colour of the world and her consciousness quickly fade from her, but was a little started when instead of hitting solid ground she felt herself land on and then being wrapped up by four big fluffy things. Feeling herself being turned over slowly, Hinata dizzily tried to force her eyes to remain open. And as her eyes adjusted to the bright light from the sky she began to make out the shape of a face, a face with two fox ears on top of his head.

'_Naruto-kun… so he must of caught me. I guess it's his tails that I can feel… they are so soft, I could stay… like… this… forever…'_ As Hinata's body finally started to fall to sleep the last thing her lavender eyes saw was the handsome face of her crush, smiling down at her brightly, the sun accentuating his long blonde hair as it swayed gently in the midday breeze. The last thing see felt was a sense of complete security as the comforting warmth of his body embraced her, her body unconsciously cuddling into the fluffy tails surrounding her.

It was a beautiful feeling to her, one that she would sleep well by, and would bring her sweet romantic dreams of her hanyou love.

Naruto smiled as he saw his best friend open her eyes briefly before quickly falling into a deep sleep. He could easily feel on how exhausted she was, and as happy to see that she had received praise for her intense work in her spar against their sensei. His smile disappeared instantly as his body froze when he felt Hinata move her arms around two of the tails that held her, pulling them close and snuggling into them. He panicked a little at her contact, and he could help feel his heart skip a beat at the interesting hold.

Kurenai watched the interesting looks pass over her hanyou student's face as he looked down at the girl held in his tails. Such emotion, such uncontained love, it was brilliant to watch as his feelings for her literally danced in his eyes. "Naruto-kun, she will need a little rest to recover, she really did go all out and will need it. Take her to the shade under the trees while I spar with Shino."

Naruto shook his head to clear the thoughts on his best friend out before nodding in response to his sensei's request and walking to the edge of the clearing, passing Shino on his way.

"Is Hinata-san okay? She wasn't injured by any of Kurenai-sensei's strikes was she?" Shino, like all Aburame, was by nature a shy person. Choosing only to speak generally when spoken to, mainly because the Aburame clan was always ostracised by the villagers because of the clan's affinity and companionship with the beetles that shared their bodies. But there was just something about his new team, something about them that made him want to get to know them better.

He wanted to open up and accept them, get to know them and spend time with them hence his question of concern for Hinata's health. But most of all, he wanted friends. Shino had been a lonely boy for as far back as he could remember. He had constantly sought others to spend time with, but his clan had very few children his age and as such had to try to befriend others in the village.

But he found quite quickly that the villagers were too freaked out by his bug companions to even look at him let alone befriend him. Causing him to do what every Aburame does at one point of their life: close up, sealing themselves away and remaining only in close contact with their family and bugs. But being seen by everyone else as a strong silent type that kept to themselves didn't help develop their social skills to the level where they could perhaps open up once more the world.

But it was something that Naruto said yesterday at the restaurant that had him questioning his clan's silent ways.

**Flashback**

"Naruto-san, why is it that you and Hinata-san don't look at me strangely or avoid me completely. Don't you both know that my clan has parasitic insects living within us?" Shino asked Naruto in his usual reserved tone as Hinata and their new sensei went to the ladies bathroom to wash up. He was so use to the odd looks that it was quite… interesting to see someone look at him normally.

Naruto in response just cocked his head sidewards, utterly confused by the strangeness of the question. "Um, it's because were friends?" Naruto offered mildly, hoping his answer was correct.

His stoic teammate seemed to visibly react to Naruto's answer, and his sensitive easily picked up Shino's companions buzzing. The tone sounding like they approve indeed.

Naruto actually couldn't be more correct, the Aburame clan was able to 'interact' with their bug companions on a more primal level and as such the bugs within Shino were more reacting to his emotions then their own. He was actually really happy with Naruto's answer, although still quite confused.

"I don't understand Naruto-san. You and Hinata-san hardly know me and yet you both consider me a friend? I do know that we have done parts of the academy together, but other then that nothing. Is it because you too know what it is to be avoided?" He raised an eyebrow behind his dark glasses, he was quite intrigued into the way Naruto and Hinata thought about those around them as he could easily tell at a few glances that they too hadn't had an easy life.

While Naruto didn't fully comprehend the first question, the second one stuck home. He knew exactly what it was like to be avoided by people. As he turned to answer the second question, Shino instantly noted the change in Naruto's demeanour, his eyes had darkened and seemed to pale every so often while his tails would twitch in irritation. A small growl being heard before he answered.

"Yer, I guess you could say it's because of that. You have seen the way everyone looks at me just like I have seen the way they look at your clan. You know what I am and what I contain and yet you don't fear me do you Shino-san? Then why should I be afraid or avoid you? They always judge me for what I contain and if I judged you for the same thing then I am even worse then they are. We are a team Shino, friends, and we will always be here to look out for each other. That's a promise." Naruto stared a little longer in his darker demeanour before slowly shifting back to his usual hyperactive self, already showing that he was over whatever memories surfaced at the comment.

Shino was left to his own thoughts as Hinata and Kurenai returned to the table. He would ask Hinata later on why she didn't find him creepy. But for now, Naruto's small sentence was enough to bring a smile to him something that rarely graced the Aburame's face.

**Flashback End**

The whole talk had him thinking, thinking that maybe he may finally be able to open up and accept people and be accepted by, and the words would stay with him forever. But most of all though he thought that he might finally be able to make friends. His new team would be more then just his team, they would be his comrades and closest friends, just like his father had always said would happen. The thought alone sparked a burning fire within him as he continued to walk towards their sensei.

"Yer, she's alright Shino-san. Just exhausted, you saw how hard she fought Kurenai-sensei. It's your turn now so kick her arse!" Naruto declared loudly as he gave a quick thumbs up, before walking to the edge of the clearing and gently placing his sleeping best friend on the ground next to him.

He flinched slightly when she pulled tightly on his tails when he tried to remove the two she held onto and just decided to let her hug them. As he moved her into a more comfortable position he could help himself from admiring her form as she slept. Her small smile, her ever gently breaths, the small happy sounds she made when he caressed her beautiful face. _'She's so peaceful, and she so often resembles an Angel. And maybe someday… my Angel.'_

The thought alone caused him to heat up as his emotions ran through him, he wanted to watch Shino spar against their sensei, but he just couldn't take her eyes of the beautiful form of the girl cuddled up against him.

As he continued to caress her face he began to hear her mumble in her sleep, his sharp hers twitching as they picked up the sounds. "N-Naruto-kun… please don't leave… you're my best friend… no, no don't kick the elder's butts because they will get you in trouble… I don't want you in trouble because of me… and I don't want you to leave me… alone…" He had to laugh slightly at her comment, even in her sleep she was still worried about him and concerned for his wellbeing, it was quite touching really and made his heart race.

Bending down to her ear, he whispered comforting words to her as he again stroked her face gently. "I won't ever leave you Hinata-chan. I will always be with you regardless of what everyone else says… I just hope you don't hate me when everyone else starts to hate you because of me." He smiled brightly as she seemed to relaxed at his words, but his smile exploded into a blush when she reached out from his tails, wrapping her arms around his chest and pulling herself into him.

She sighed happily as her body was flooded with the warmth emanating off Naruto's body, even without being awake she could feel the comfort he brought her.

Naruto looked down at the girl cuddling against his side and tried to calm himself down. It wasn't that he disliked the close comfort, quite the contrary actually, it was just that he was afraid she would think he was some kind of pervert if she awoke like this. He tried a few times to gently pry her off of him without waking her but her hold was too tight, and as he stopped trying he found himself gently caressing her face again. His sensitive nose inhaling the sweet rose scent of her hair as he listened to the gentle sound of her heartbeat and breathing.

There was no doubting the feelings he felt for her, he didn't know how long he had held such powerful emotions for his best friend and couldn't fathom how he didn't notice on how much she meant to him. He loved her, wholely, completely, she was his everything and he would easily be able to give his life for hers. She was worthier of far greater then the tainted love of a demon, but it was a bright star of hope that someone as wonderful might eventually grow to love him back.

'_Soon… I will tell her soon, I just hope that she doesn't hate me for it otherwise I could very well lose my closest friend.' _Bending his head down and shifting her slightly, he looked closely at her peacefully sleeping face and completely against his own thoughts lent down to her. He couldn't resist the urges, the need to be close to her, his instincts were forcing him far closer to her emotionally then he would have thought possible. And he needed her love more then he could ever fathom.

His heart raced and his breathing rose as his face lay centimetres from hers, his eyes focused only on her closed ones as he lowered himself further. And in one quick motion he gently and innocently licked her on her lips.

He pulled back as he felt his body virtually explode as he almost felt like sparks of electricity surged though his body at the display of affection. Even if she never returned his feelings or just wanted to be friends, at least he was able to give her his first kiss. The kiss of a fox to it's eternal love.

'_Soon Hinata-chan… Soon I will tell you.'_ He thought with a nervous smile before leaning down once again and placing a normal kiss on her forehead, making her sigh happily in her sleep.


	24. Chapter 23: First Mission

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Right! Another chapter is now released. A week longer then the last chapter but eh who's counting.

I liked this chapter except for the last quater... for some reason it just seemed... rushed? I don't know, please read and tell me what you all think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's affiliated products. I do however own any original plot or characters in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 23 – First Mission as Team 8

Naruto and Hinata watched in awe as Kurenai continued to elude Shino's expertly planned out strategies. Although, Hinata was sitting a fair few feet away from Naruto trying to not stare at him as she was far too embarrassed from waking up in his arms having clung to his chest in her sleep.

Although she definitely couldn't deny on how wonderful it felt waking up listening to the sound of his strong heartbeat while being wrapped in the constant warmth his body always emits.

Now normally watching a Jonin evade or elude the strikes of a mere Genin wouldn't be enough of a challenge to be even interesting let along amazing. But with their sensei's need to avoid Shino's Kikai beetles lest she have all of her chakra drained it was an amazing sight indeed.

Shino's eyes narrowed behind his dark shades as his sensei disappeared completely from view in a burst of cherry blossoms as his punch connected with her stomach. He knew from her conversations yesterday that she was a Genjutsu master, but the level of control she had to be able to pull them off so quickly in the midst of battle shocked the stoic Aburame.

His bugs however, the drones especially, were far too simple minded to be affected by the mind altering arts and as such were rendered immune to all of her Genjutsu and like all Aburame he used his companions to assist him in detecting or dispelling them. But the problem was, Kurenai would constantly watch him and expect him to dispel them and so set up two Genjutsu, one on top of the other just to confuse him when he dispelled them.

Scanning around him, the Kikai began to swirl around him slowly, helping him detect odd fluctuations of chakra around him. And when the foreign chakra was identified, the Kikai in his body would find the same foreign chakra that was affecting his mind and devour it. Therefore releasing him from the Genjutsu.

As soon as the sea of cherry blossoms were dispelled Shino ducked rashly as he dodged a round kick aimed for his head, before spinning on the ball of his left foot hoping to trip Kurenai as he kicked out with his right.

Kurenai almost smiled as Shino released himself from yet another one of her Genjutsu techniques. It was a little infuriating that two of her three genin were practically immune to her favourite art, while the other could pull of illusions that could trap her. But in a way it just made her more impressed with their level and even more excited about training them.

Realising what Shino was trying to accomplish she allowed him this one hit and fell to the ground as her legs were swept from under her. No sooner as she fell, Shino had sent a large portion of his bugs to attach themselves to Kurenai while she was on the ground and begin draining her chakra.

Within seconds thousands of small black beetles had flown out of his sleeves and surrounded the helpless Kurenai, covering and encasing her as they began to suck the chakra from her.

Shino frowned slightly at having captured his sensei so easily. Admittedly he knew that she was a Genjutsu specialist, and that having his bugs practically nullify her specialisation would make it a little bit more difficult for her, but he would have never thought that she would actually be captured.

He was brought out of his confusion when the cover of Kikai bugs surrounding Kurenai caved in on themselves before dispersing around, confused at the sudden vanishment of their target. A loud series of cracks were heard directly behind Shino, and before he even had a second to glance behind him, a huge tree grew from the cracks in the ground. The branches quickly grew outwards and wrapped tightly around him, getting thicker and stronger with ever second, preventing his escape.

He knew it was just another Genjutsu, but breaking this one would be a little harder as to him it felt so physically real it would be difficult to distinguish it from real life even with his bugs destroying the foreign chakra in his body causing the illusion.

Seemingly materializing out of thin air as wisps of colour burred together. Kurenai appeared before her student with a small smile as she began to walk slowly towards him her piercing red eyes watching him carefully so she was prepared for any jutsu or Kikai beetles that he might throw her way.

"Well Shino Aburame, I am quite impressed. You displayed a rather good range of your clan's taijutsu style while at the same time supplementing it perfectly with the use of your companions. It is rare to see a weak Aburame, but I never expected that even a freshly graduated one would be so strong." Shino's body 'buzzed' slightly at the praise and the complement of his clan never being weak.

But he wasn't finished, as soon as Kurenai was close enough the 'Shino' trapped by the tree exploded into a huge swarm of Kikai, which then charged forward and engulfed Kurenai once more. And after a few seconds when the squirming form his sensei didn't disappeared he casually strolled out from behind one of the surrounding trees.

Although he wasn't particularly surprised that when his bugs began to fly back to him, all that was in Kurenai's place was a log that she had substituted with.

"Yes, definitely impressive.-" She started as she walked back into the clearing, trying to ignore the looks of hero worship from Naruto at her display of abilities. Before continuing she dispelled all of her active Genjutsu before beckoning Naruto and Hinata over to her, although she noticed that they seemed a little wary of walking to close to one another. "-Now, I must say that I am thrilled to have been chosen to be the leader of team 8 and I am very impressed by all the skills that you three demonstrated. So now that I have roughly evaluated your levels, we will head to the Hokage and get our very first mission as Team 8."

"ALRIGHT! OUR FIRST MISSION!" Naruto jumped up and down in joy at the proclamation, and practically bounced around the whole clearing, yipping as he did so. Hinata just giggled at his childish behaviour while Kurenai looked on with an interested glance as she had never heard such an odd noise from anyone. Although she found his level of immaturity somewhat annoying.

Naruto continue to bounce around, exclaiming his excitement and spouting nonsense about how his team was the best and that they were going to kick everyone's arses. Kurenai was about to reprimand him for being silly and to settle down, when he stopped suddenly, freezing in place except for his nose and ears. While she had to admit that watching his ears twitch around while he sniffed the air was a little amusing and cute, she had no idea what he had picked up on that caused such a sudden reaction.

She became especially concerned when he spun around quickly to face one particular direction and started growing viciously when slowly moving to crouch on all fours. While she couldn't say that she knew much about his everyday behaviour, she did know it wasn't human like to act completely like an animal.

"Naruto Uzumaki! Stop growling and stand up! You are not a wild animal." Naruto's vicious growling didn't cease, nor did he stand up or halt the harsh flicking of his tails. Although just about anyone could have seen that her sentence for some reason shook him to his very core.

**Flashback**

Naruto could barely contain himself at the rush he felt right now. He had learnt over the past few months after learning that he was a hanyou, that all the urges he felt, all the pulls, all the desires to do stuff were actually his kitsune instincts. They were an odd feeling, almost like it was the voice of an old man commanding him to do something and obeying it completely.

This time, it happened to be the sight of a small white rabbit that had come out of hibernation in the Hyuga gardens. At first he just wanted to pet it, but as he approached the rabbit it began to run as soon as spotting him. And as it ran from him, Naruto couldn't believe the immense feelings that coursed through him, everything he could hear, everything he could smell and everything he could see almost immediately became focused on one thing: that rabbit, his target, his prey.

Without even stopping to think about his actions, Naruto took off with a vicious growl after the white rabbit. The rabbit was fast, faster then anything he had ever raced, and the thrill of following it, of chasing it down was making his blood boil with excitement. He wanted nothing more then to catch that rabbit, it was his prey and he would have it.

A very pregnant Hitomi was having a calm midday lunch with her friend Tohru while they talked about there current favourite topics. One of which was a certain blond haired Kitsune Hanyou. They had been talking in peace for a fair while now and were enjoying the time together as they rarely got a lot of time these days with all the clan problems that needed to be sorted out by Hiashi and Hitomi.

Their quiet lunch was suddenly interrupted as a small white rabbit burst through the open side doors and scamped around the dinner room, knocking down everything in its path as it ran in terror from the vicious creature that had suddenly started chasing it.

The small white rabbit was quickly followed by Naruto, who chased after it as it ran around the dinner room, knocking over anything that got in his road, completely ignoring everything around him as his slowly-fading-to-red eyes locked on and focused on nothing but his prey.

Hitomi and Tohru jumped in fright at the sudden destruction of their eating table as Naruto and a white rabbit continued to trash the place. Hitomi was instantly furious at Naruto's reckless behaviour and instantly went to yell at him. But as she did, she saw the look in his eyes. The utter focus and bloodlust within his almost red slitted eyes as he chased the rabbit scared the life out of her.

She could feel the urges from him, the urges to capture and kill the rabbit. And regardless of whether or not he wanted too, she knew he was losing himself to his animalistic nature. She had thought he would have far better control over his actions by now, and was quite disappointed that such a simple instinct held so much sway over him. And as his Yokai chakra began to build up from the excitement of his chase and from giving in to his natural urges, Hitomi knew she had to stop him quickly.

Naruto's vision before him blurred slightly. He wasn't even sure what he was doing any more or if he was even doing anything. All he could see, smell and hear was the prey before him. The prey he just _had_ to catch.

Above everything he could fell, one feeling stood above the rest, the feeling of bloodlust. It felt like his entire being was on fire as the excitement and bloodlust chasing this small white bouncing animal filled him with such primal energy he could barely think straight. As was displayed by his complete disregard for the damage he was causing the dinning room of his Hyuga family and his subconscious drawing on his Yokai chakra as he fell more and more into the instincts to hunt.

Within just a few seconds of entering the house, his prey was cornered and he felt a certain thrill flood his system as he approached the cowering animal. He lent down, lowering himself and readying his claws as he prepared to spring forward, lunge and capture his prey. But it was within his moment that his ears were overpowered by a sound not made of the rabbit, and it was enough to release some of his clouded mind enough to regain control and realisation of his actions.

His mother yelled at him.

"Naruto Uzumaki! I will not have you acting like nothing but a wild animal! You will stop chasing that poor rabbit this instant!" Hitomi Hyuga almost never raised her voice, but every time she did it was always seemed to be to reprimand Naruto for something he had done. And in this case it was both reprimanding and saving.

Almost immediately, all the subconsciously drawn on Yokai chakra withdrew back to the seal holding the fox and his mind quickly returned to his own. Looking around him to find where he was, he noticed that he was in the Hyuga's Main house dinning room. But as his vision cleared he also noticed that almost all of the furniture was utterly destroyed, with almost everything having deep claw marks in them.

"W-What… What happened?" His memory was slightly blurred, almost recalling nothing of the past few minutes. That is until, a small white rabbit sped past him and out the side doors.

Tears slowly began to form in the young hanyou's eyes as he stared in horror at his clawed hands. As soon as he saw the rabbit again the feelings and memories moments ago returned to him. But this time he was far more aware of what was happening and as such forced the instincts out of his mind as he let the guilt of his actions wash over him as he looked into his mother's eyes.

He could see the disappointment within them, and it cut his heart in pieces. He wanted nothing more then to chase that poor rabbit and kill it, and he had given into the instincts almost voluntarily.

For within those few minutes, for just a moment, he was nothing by a wild animal… a monster.

**Flashback end**

The words his mother had said to him then were so close to what his sensei said just moments ago cut him. Any memories of his surrogate mother always caused him a great deal of pain and snapped harshly in response.

"You are not my mother Kurenai-_sensei _!-" admittedly it sounded quite vicious, hateful and disrespectful, but Naruto was not originally meaning it to be like that. The pain from the memory just influenced his tone. "-Besides, can't you smell it? I can. I can smell snakes."

As soon as the word 'snakes' left his mouth Hinata immediately dropped to her family's stance and activated her Byakugan as she spun to face the same direction as Naruto. Both of them donning serious expressions.

Both Kurenai and Shino were quite confused as to the reason why Hinata and Naruto were acting so strange. But they barely even had time to even think about asking before the ground beneath them began to shake and rumble.

The magnitude of the rumbling kept increases every second, and as Kurenai and Shino glanced in the direction that Naruto and Hinata were facing a huge purple and brown python with piercing blood red eyes, easily two meters in diameter burst through the clearing and headed straight for Naruto. Its bulky size and weight leaving a deep trench beneath it as its gigantic maw opened wide in preparation to devour its foxy target.

Acting on trained instinct along, Naruto dodged to the side with an amazing burst of speed. Allowing the humongous mouth to pass him harmlessly as he slashed out with his claws viciously along its scaly length.

The giant snake let loss an earbreaking hiss in both pain and anger and quickly swerved to target its pray out again, fair amounts of blood dripped from the large slashes on the side of its neck.

The snake reared up as it stared at the small foxy human before it, its tongue flicking out spasmodically as it practically could taste the blood of its prey in the air. Hanyou and Snake stared at each other with unbridled hatred, each of them carefully calculating the others movements while barely moving an inch themselves. Between the blink of an eye they suddenly charged forward, Naruto raising his clawed hands while the giant python bared its fangs.

Kurenai could only watch in shock while her hanyou student battle the giant serpent. At one point she was about to intervene and kill the thing, fearing for the life of her student. But when she saw Naruto _literally_ send the gigantic snake flying as he slammed his tails into its face, she decided that he could handle it on his own.

Hinata was almost crying in worry as she watched her crush take on the purple/brown giant snake from hell. She knew what to expect when he first said he could smell snake, but this was just ridiculous and she knew that she could do nothing to help, because despite the fact she knew how to deal with the snake, right now it was best for her to just watch her crush's back for any other snakes.

Everyone's eyes shot open wide in shock when Naruto lifted the huge snake by its middle section and again sent it flying by a strong punch to its gut. Not wanting the serpent to have another chance at eating him he charged forward, following it as it fly away and mere inches before it struck the ground he delivered three quick, but powerful, blows to its long stomach.

As soon as it struck the ground the damage it received from Naruto's punches, tail slams and slashes finally caught up with it, and with a great pain filled hiss… it burst into smoke?

Naruto gave a few deep breaths, regaining his composure from the rather quick fight, before quickly running to the centre of the training grounds and taking up his fighting stance once again.

Having done this same thing a few times Hinata ran up to him and stood facing in the opposite direction standing firm against his back in her fighting stance. The two best friends, slowly turned around each other as they continued to stand back to back, scanning their surroundings for any sign of the person they knew was watching them.

Detecting a slight chakra burst beneath her, Hinata tried to warn her crush on their target's location. "N-Naruto-kun! She's benea-" But she was too slow. As soon as Hinata had spotted her, a figure quickly rose up from the ground appearing between the two best friends as her body seemed to meld from he grassy plains. And before either of the two could move, she quickly grabbed Naruto by the scruff of his neck and held Hinata by a pressure point in hers, immobilising them both.

"Hehehe, well well. That was certainly entertaining, although poor Mono-kun is going to be nursing those nasty wounds you gave him for a week." Anko cried with a mock pout. Although that pout quickly turned to an insanely wicked grin when she noticed one of Naruto's tails had snugly wrapped around Hinata's waist.

"Oooh! Naru-kun your tail is wrapped quite cutely around the Princess here. I didn't know you two were dating, when did this happen I wonder?" As expected both immobilised teens went bright red at the false accusation, Hinata in particular as she hadn't noticed the tail around her waist.

'_Naruto-kun's tail is wrapped around me! Oh no, don't faint don't faint!... but… It's so warm and cuddly.' _Hinata tried desperately to keep herself conscious, but to memory of waking up being cuddled by them just earlier filtered into her mind and she promptly fainted.

As soon as she felt Hinata's body go slack, Anko gently lowered her down to the ground while pulling Naruto's tail off her and keeping him suspended in the air by his scruff. As she turned him around to face her she could easily tell by his facial features and the low vibrations through his neck that he was _seriously _pissed off. Something she just found hilarious.

And his scrunched up cat face from being lifted by his scruff didn't help her in keeping her laughter inside.

"Awww, is the little hanyou upset because I was right and he does like the Princess?" Feeling his neck pulse rapidly she knew she was right. And she could also tell that he was seriously regretting talking about his feelings to her.

"Come on otouto, this is what big sisters are for: picking on their little brothers. Besides you know I love you you little gaki."

Her childish demeanour quickly disappeared as she was forced to quickly dodge a barrage of kunai aimed for her head. Quickly shifted to her left, Anko held up her own kunai to block Kurenai's before jumping back a few meters to put some distance between them while Kurenai quickly stood protectively over Hinata while Shino stood beside her. Anko was of course still holding Naruto.

"Mitarashi-san, by what rights do you think you can openly attack my students! And was it you that summoned that massive snake?" Kurenai was _furious_ as was clearing evident in her usually calm voice. She knew Anko had a reputation for causing all sorts of mischief around the village, but openly attacking another shinobi of Konoha was high treason.

Anko glared at the red-eyed beauty before her with seething anger. She had known Kurenai for a few years now and at one point had been close friends. But when her bastard sensei had abandoned Konoha the two of them just seemed to get into argument after argument until eventually they both broke the friendship off.

But that squabble wasn't the reason she was so angry right now. No, her reason was slightly less personal, it was more brought on by what Kurenai had just said. "So, you're the Jonin that the old man picked to be the sensei of the brat here and his hyuga princess?" It was more a rhetorically question but Anko waited until Kurenai nodded in confirmation before continuing.

"Argh that's beyond unfair! I don't see why he picked you to be their sensei, I could have been their teacher too."

Kurenai relaxed her stance and placed away her kunai when she saw Anko throw a mini-tantrum. Obviously she was not a real threat, but she had attacked her students so she still had her chakra readied for Genjutsu if the need arose.

"Perhaps because they wouldn't have to fear your insanity ever time they arrived for training. For instance you had a snake try to eat Naruto-kun and look at what you are doing to him now!" Kurenai quipped back. She knew exactly how Anko behaved and anyone in their right mind would fear the Snake Mistress of Konoha.

"Huh? Oh Mono-kun! Yer you don't have to worry about him. The gaki's have fought with my snakes enough to not be injured by them. Besides-" She started as she pulled Naruto into a bone crushing hug, squeezing him and rubbing her cheek against him like he was a giant fox plushy. "-the little gaki here is my little brother and I could never hurt him… um ok maybe a little, but I would never actually _really_ hurt him."

Kurenai just sighed as Anko began to poke Naruto's immobilised body, who was chuckling evilly that he couldn't stop her. She knew Anko would never change but she really wished the woman would be more serious about things, Kurenai respected Anko's shinobi abilities but she believed the women's childish ways would only get her killed. Although, being a master of the Genjutsu arts she had a vast understanding of the human mind, and knew that in some way Anko's behaviour was to help hide the pain she always felt from her sensei's betrayal.

"Alright Mitarashi-san, I think its time you leave my students alone and leave. Unless of course you came for a reason other then to torture Naruto and Hinata?" Almost instantly Anko ceased her poking of Naruto, much to his joy, and turned to face Kurenai with a vicious and yet victorious grin.

"Heh, you weren't the only one who wanted to train the two brats. They were a sort after pair as you know. Me and the girls were given a little time to train them both, you are still their sensei but we get to train them at certain key points in their ninja carrier. We are not stealing them from you, but we still get to torture them every now and again." Smirking once more, Anko quickly produced a small scroll and tossed it to Kurenai before releasing Naruto from her grasp.

As soon as Naruto felt her hold on him loosen and his movement returned to him he quickly spun around, lashing out with a clawed hand he slashed deeply across Anko's face, growling viciously as he did.

Kurenai was shocked by his violent actions and almost dropped the scroll Anko had given her, but as the 'person' that was Anko faded into a slimy pile of mud she knew that Naruto must have known that Anko was using a Mud Clone technique to make a copy of herself. She had to almost hold herself from laughing when she heard Naruto mutter something about 'psychotic snake lady always wanting to see him eaten'.

She was pulled out of her musings when she felt Hinata stir behind her, and in almost an instant Naruto was by the heiresses side. Something she found quite cute.

"Hey Hinata-chan, are you ok?" Naruto asked caringly while he gently lifted his best friend up with his tails, causing a small blush to appear on her face as her mind slowly registered the world around her: in particular his fluffy tails lifting her up.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine Naruto-kun. Anko-san j-just scared me that's all." Hinata stuttered as she was pulled up by Naruto, desperately trying not to blush at their close proximity and of course from what Anko had actually said. _'I wonder if Naruto-kun would hold me like that when I tell him how I fell… it would be so wonderful to be wrapped up forever in his warm fluffy tails.'_

The blush on Hinata's face rose with each passing second as more and more romantic thoughts passed through her head. Each one had at one stage been a dream, or day-dream for that matter, and she could only pray that one day such dreams would come true.

And it certainly didn't help her that Naruto was also smiling with his handsome foxy grin.

Kurenai watched the two best friends interaction for a few moments before opening the scroll she had been giving. Quickly reading its contents a flicker of anger appeared across her face before disappearing almost as quickly as it came, she knew better then to let emotions cloud her judgement. But she still utilized her a small amount of her chakra to ignite the letter in frustration.

"What did the scroll contain Kurenai-sensei?" Shino inquired, concern evident in his voice. He had remained almost completely silent and neutral to everything that had occurred today, having expected almost anything wild to happen. As he had already reasoned with himself that being on a team with Naruto would mean that things would be quite chaotic. Plus he was also used to Anko barging into the classrooms at the Academy pulling almost the same stunts as she did just before.

"Nothing you need to worry about Shino-kun. But it _will_ be something I discuss with the Hokage." Turning her full attention to her entire squad, Kurenai addressed them all. "Alright now that the interruption is over let's now head over and retrieve our first mission. Oh and Naruto, that rather short fight you had with the snake summon gave me a little more insight into your fighting style so we can leave our spar until another day."

Naruto just nodded his head in agreement almost immediately, although it was easy to tell his full attention was not on her but rather the Hyuga beside him as Kurenai easily spotted him stealing quick glances at her.

Deciding it would be better to not say anything to the two best friends Kurenai just beckoned her three students to follow her as she began to leave the training ground. Kurenai led in front while Naruto and Hinata stood behind her, chatting away and glancing dreamily every so often at the other, while Shino quietly brought up the rear carefully analysing the strange behaviours of his teammates.

Konoha Barbeque Restaurant

Ino Yamanaka was beyond pissed off as she sat in her seat with her arms crossed, glaring menacingly at her teammates and sensei. She had been having a fairly horrible last two days having been separated from her two best friends and placed into a team she absolutely despised and the last few hours had just added to her list of reasons to be pissed off.

For starters, her teammates consisted of a chubby food eating monster whom was currently devouring the entire beef order that the team had come to the restaurant for, and the laziest and carefree person she had ever met who was currently sleeping in the seat opposite to her. So both of her key dislikes: fat and lazy, were her teammates.

Secondly, her sensei was some sort of smoke-a-holic who always had at least one cigarette in his mouth and had the gall to tell her she wasn't eating enough and refused to listen when she explained that she was on a diet.

And thirdly… thirdly she just really missed her friends. Naruto and Hinata had been her best friends for years now, and although she may not have shown outwardly that she was upset about being on a different team. On the inside she was practically crushed.

They had done almost everything together, the three of them were the closest small group of friends in the entire academy. And having been ripped apart and placed in a separate team hurt her deeper then she ever thought it possible.

When she had found out at the academy that their teams would be different, at first she was really angry because of who her teammates actually were. But that night she had just locked herself in her room and cried her heart out. To her it was completely unfair, she was happy that Naruto and Hinata would be together on the same team, but why was it that she was left out? Ever since Sakura had destroyed their friendship over their rivalry for Sasuke's affection, Naruto and Hinata had become both her support and closest of friends.

And she never realised just how much happier being with them made her, until she was actually torn from them. And now that they were on separate teams, when their missions start they may only have time to see each other at once a month if they were lucky. The time gap that they could spend together was already widening, cause for the first time in years, Naruto and Hinata did not come to her house in the morning to pick up. Something she had immediately missed.

'_It's just not fair! Why does everyone else get to be on their friend's teams while I'm stuck her with lard ball and lazy arse!'_

Refusing to let it make her cry again she turned her attention away from her self and her team and at the restaurant they were currently in.

It was quite flash for a small restaurant, having hand carved mahogany booths and clean white marble tilling to name a few features. To the left side were a few gathered chairs and tables with families filling each as waiters and waitresses served them there meals. To the back was an open window to the main kitchen, easily showing the interesting techniques the numerous chefs were using to create the most perfect of dishes.

On her team's side of the restaurant were about ten small booths, each with their own little grill plate to cook your own assortment of meat adding whatever you want as they cook. Ino took in a deep breath to help calm herself down, and as she did the vast flavours and scents in the air drew deep within her nose almost overpowering her senses with the rich mouth-watering aromas. And with each new breath she took, more of the delicious smells filled her.

She almost giggled at her own actions as she had obviously been spending way too much time with Naruto to adopt some of his habits. And despite the fact that her sensei practically dragged her here she found herself liking the place. _'When we can next hang out together I'll definitely bring them both here.'_

Smiling to herself at the thought of having a nice lunch or dinner with her friends, Ino turned her attention back to the small grill in front of her, definitely feeling hungry enough now to eat the beef she had been slow cooking.

Seeing Ino move and actually start to eat the lunch he had shouted his new team Asuma couldn't help but take a small jab at his female student. "So much for that diet of yours Ino, I thought you said under no circumstance were you going to eat?" He had been watching her for a while now and knew that she wasn't in a good mood, she was obviously unhappy with her team and the best way to fix that is to get her talking to everyone. Even if that talking is yelling at him.

Unfortunately Shikamaru had woken up from his little nap and had heard that comment. "Don't even bother to ask sensei. Girls are just too much of a drag, if its not one thing that's bothering them it's another. Trying to understand them is just too troublesome. Especially that one." Without even opening his eyes as he spoke Shikamaru quickly drifted back to sleep. That sleep was short lived however as Ino stood from her seat in a sudden rage.

Leaning over the table she picked the lazy Nara up by his shirt collar and bringing him towards her. "WHAT THE IS YOUR PROBLEM SHIKAMARU! I WOULD BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY BEFORE I BEAT YOUR LAZY ARSE TO A TROUBLESOME PULP!"

Asuma just sighed as he watched his team make a scene in the new restaurant. It was interaction, but not the kind he was after. Glancing at each of them in turn from Ino to Choji to Shikamaru only made him wish he had perhaps asked for a different team. _'Short-tempered, Vulgar, Lazy. This team is going to need a lot of work, oh well, at least it should be a fun time.'_

Shikamaru was about three seconds away from being clobbered by Ino's rage when a familiar voice almost creating a sonic boom as it virtually exploded from the Hokage Tower distracted Ino from the face she was about to slam.

"WHAAAAAAT?"

At the Hokage Tower

Naruto was promptly whacked over the back of his head by Kurenai as his outburst at the Hokage's statement was beyond room volume and very disrespectful.

"You will speak at a normal volume while indoors Naruto. And you _will _show the Hokage some respect, apologise to him immediately." As soon as the commanding words left her mouth Naruto froze and his fur stood on end. It wasn't just what she said but the tones she had used.

Within just one day Kurenai had forced him to recall memories of his mother three times. And each time his heart would ache with the pain it brought him. Hitomi was the only person apart from Hinata that he would actually listen to when they told him off, mainly because of the love and respect he held from them both as his only family. But for some reason, every time Kurenai spoke to him in a reprimanding way he found himself respecting her as his sensei more and more.

Sarutobi just chuckled when he saw Kurenai's attempt to control Naruto. He had known the hanyou since birth and knew that no one could control his wild and unpredictable personality. Except for of course Lady Hitomi, but she had sadly passed away long ago. So imagine his surprise when he not only saw Naruto nod his head in acceptance but also quite down immediately as he apologised, his ears and tails falling as he submitted slightly to Kurenai.

Hinata was also surprised when Naruto apologised to their sensei and she gave him a strange look as she checked to see if he was sick or something. As she searched his face for signs of discomfort she immediately recognised that something was troubling him, as he seemed to have a forlorn look on his face as his stared out into nothing. Almost like he was recalling a harsh memory of the past.

Hating to see him in any kind of pain Hinata gently reached out and touched his shoulder the comforting gesture quickly made the hanyou aware of his surroundings again and a single tail gently curled around her wrist as Naruto turned to her with a smile.

"It's okay Hinata-chan, I was just was remembering something." While his sincere, and rather handsome, smile would fool most people, Hinata wasn't a fool; she had known him long enough to easily understand the depths of his words. She knew and loved him enough to easily see almost any pain he was in, having the Byakugan made that task even easier, but even without it Hinata always knew what he meant with his half sentences. She knew that he was thinking of her mother.

Hitomi was more influential on their lives then anyone else apart from perhaps each other. And each day they both were constantly reminded of the mother they had both lost, and the revenge they both swore on her murderer.

She nodded her head slowly in response; she knew he could tell she fully understood what he meant. Who wouldn't after the time they had spent together over the years. Although she could still be surprised by his touches, as was displayed when she jumped slightly when her hand was gently wrapped around by one of his tails as he turned back to face the Hokage behind his desk. Causing a nice shade of red to adorn her cheeks as she tightened her hand around his tail.

Which was something that made Naruto jump slightly in response. He hadn't even known he had grabbed her hand so when he felt her grip tighten his heart raced at the thought that she was actually holding his tail and he holding her hand. A thought that they both shared.

'_You won't ever have to worry about mother leaving you Naruto-kun, you are my best friend… and I will never leave you. Just please… don't ever leave me either.'_ Hinata could feel her heart racing as she began to feel Naruto's warmth encompass her entire body. It always emanated from his whole body so when she gripped his tail it was easily transferred to her. Filling her body with his never ending warmth and also, unknown to Hinata, his never ending love.

Sarutobi had watched Naruto's and Hinata's little interaction with a bright smile on his aged face. It was good to see that they were slowly developing as more then friends. And perhaps in the next few weeks or months they may even develop further. Kami knows they both deserved the happiness they would bring to each other, and he would make sure that the Hyuga Elders didn't bar them.

Clearing his throat, he continued from where he left off about the details of their first mission. "Alright, as I was saying, your first mission you will be painting one of the homes belonging to the Yamanka clan. This may seem like an easy mission Naruto-kun, but it is the type of missions you will get until you are more experienced as a team." Sarutobi explained calmly, although on this inside he was laughing heartily at seeing the sheer frustration on the young hanyou's face. Hinata looked like she too wasn't happy either, but she knew her place was not to question the Hokage's orders.

Something that Kurenai was obviously somehow drilling into Naruto's head. The last member of team 8: Shino, seemed to have no problem at all. But Sarutobi had dealt with the Aburame clan enough over the years to detect the odd buzzing sound within Shino indicating his dislike.

Seeing Naruto was about to object once again, Kurenai quickly stepped forward placing a hand on his head while quickly accepting the mission. "It will do fine, thank you Hokage-sama. It will be completed in the utmost haste, and their will be no objections." She finished by giving Naruto a quick glare to make sure he was silent before she politely requested that they could leave immediately.

As they were about to leave though, the door suddenly flung wide open revealing a small boy about 8 years old whom bolted through without even taking a second to look where he was going. "Old man! I'm here to defeat you and take your title of Hokagaaaaaa!" Having not even seen where he was running he slammed directly into Hinata's chest, bouncing off her and landing harshly on the ground.

Hinata was shocked at being suddenly bumped into and immediately went to check to see if the young boy was okay. But as she reached out to check him he knocked her hand away yelling in anger. "Hey you! You pushed me over! Do you even know who I am? I'm Konohamaru, the honourable grandson of the Third Hokage! If it wasn't for you I would have easily defeated the old man and become the next Hokage!"

Hinata was a little taken back by his outburst and being the nervous girl she is began to stutter out all sorts of apologise, despite his bratish behaviour. Naruto however, was infuriated that some random brat just abused his best friend.

Before Kurenai or anyone else could stop him, Naruto quickly lifted the boy up by his sweater scarf with two of his tails and brought him to eye level. "Listen brat! You will appologise to Hinata-chan immediately for yelling at her! It was your own fault for not looking where you were going!" Naruto demanded while crossing his arms, doing his best to intimidate the kid by growling deeply.

"Some weird fox cosplayer isn't going to tell me what to do! I'm the honourable grandson of the Third Hokage, so you can't do anything to me." Naruto's growl deepened at the 'cosplayer' joke and lashed out.

"I don't care if the Hokage is your grandmother! Don't yell at Hinata-chan!" before anyone could stop him Naruto used his tails to effortlessly hurl the young brat straight into the brick wall of the Hokage's office, creating a fair dent where he struck.

Konohamaru didn't know what even hit him as he felt himself go flying towards the wall, yelling out in pain as he struck the solid brick, the last thing that went through his head was questions about the strange fox boy that had hurled him. _'He's different… he didn't give me special treatment because of my title… maybe he might be different to the rest…' _After he struck the wall his now unconscious body fell unceremoniously onto the stone flooring.

Kurenai was far to gob smacked at Naruto's actions to even begin to reprimand him. It wasn't until Sarutobi picked up his unconscious grandson that she could even process a thought. "H-Hokage-sama, I-I couldn't s-stop him! He jus-" She would have continued to appologise for not stopping Naruto had she not been completely stopped by Sarutobi bursting out in laughter at the hilarity of the situation as he gently placed Konohamaru on the seat next to his office chair.

"Never you mind what just happened Kurenai. Naruto-kun is unpredictable at best and I have been meaning to introduce these two for a while now. Although better circumstances would have been better." Turning his attention to rest of team 8, he instructed them to head to their mission location while he have a few worlds with their sensei.

Kurenai waited patiently for her students to leave and Sarutobi to explain himself. It wasn't often that someone's student randomly assaults the Hokage's grandson so she was certain that everything before was just a jolly act before he reprimanded her for her inability to control her students.

However, for some reason the Hokage was able to completely read her mind. "You don't need to worry Kurenai-chan, I am not keeping you here to lecture you. Konohamaru has been looking for someone who doesn't just give him immediate respect because of his title. And you will probably find that he may try to follow you guys around to get Naruto as a friend." After his short explanation he sat back down in his office chair and withdrew his favourite pipe before his face suddenly changed, reverting to a more serious look as he lit the tobacco he placed with it.

"Now. You came here for another reason apart from Team 8's first mission. I can assume that Anko has already boasted to you about our little arrangement?" He said while directing her to the seat opposite his desk.

Kurenai smiled at having been so easily read, but she kept her professional composure as she sat down in the offered seat. If what the scroll that Anko gave her was true, they had a lot to discuss.

Naruto was proclaiming rather loudly his aversion to this 'useless junk of a mission' as he called it while Hinata just giggle at his usual antics while Shino was wondering where the hell Naruto got all of his energy to be so loud all the time.

As they continued to walk to their destination Shino returned to his observations of his two teammates as they spoke to each other. It was painfully obvious to everyone how much they meant to one another, and from what Shino had seen at his time at the academy they had known each other for many years before they started at the academy.

His clan wasn't well known for their social interactions so Shino had a hard time understanding how they could fell so strongly about each other and yet they couldn't tell the other. He had never had such feelings of interest in another person so he couldn't really empathise on why, but it was still interesting to observe.

Especially their reactions to each other of late whenever they had physical contact.

Turning his observations away from his teammates when he heard a random village jeer, he immediately noticed that almost everyone on the streets were staring at his team with quite hateful glares, or more specifically: Naruto.

Shino ignored them for a while knowing that Naruto obviously didn't care as he had gotten use to them. But Shino could hear some of the things they were calling out, and despite being use to being stared at himself, the hateful glares were really getting to him.

"Naruto-san, how is it you can stand the glares. The villagers around us, they are saying all sorts of things about you. Why does it not bother you?" Usually Shino wasn't one to pry into other's personal lives, but being able to live being surrounded by people who despise your existence defied all his logic.

Without even turning around to look at Shino, Naruto replied in a low tone as he continued to walk to their destination. "It took some getting use to Shino. A lot of time, especially when I revoked the law about not telling the children on Konoha about my prisoner." He said while unconsciously gripping his stomach. "But as long as I have my friends and Hinata-chan around me, I can ignore them forever. Besides, it's one of my dreams to prove them wrong about me and I can't really prove to them that I'm not a monster if I kick their arses every time they say something about me can I?"

Shino nodded slowly as he accepted the hanyou's answer. In truth he had forgotten about the Fox sealed within Naruto, to him and most everyone at the academy he was just a Kitsune Hanyou, not a jailor of some evil demon.

Hinata would have added a comment to explain a little more but Naruto's wording of 'my friends and Hinata-chan' had her blushing brightly at being thought of as separate from his friends. Although she knew he didn't mean it like that, it was still nice to imagine herself as more then his friend.

Naruto and Hinata had been to the Yamanaka compound so often to visit and pick up Ino that they were easily able to reach there in no time at all. Hinata stepped forward and displayed their mission papers to the guards at the front gate and the team was quickly led to a rather run down building which obviously required more then just a paint job and were left to wait for their sensei for further instructions.

Naruto was not a patient hanyou, and as such it took him barely a few minutes of observing the painting tools and the colours before boredom quickly began to take him. Looking around him slyly he noted that Shino and Hinata were beginning to open some of the paint tins to see if they could start without their sensei.

Seeing that they weren't looking at him, he quickly pulled out a small plastic bag from a pocket in his pants. And being careful not to alert his teammates he opened a different tin of paint and quickly filled the bag with some of its contents.

A viciously evil foxy grin appeared on his face as he tied a knot in the top of the bag, sealing the paint within it. Grinning to himself he snuck behind his teammates and readied the small back in one hand, preparing to lob it as hard as he could at Hinata and Shino he nearly dislocated his entire arm when his arm's momentum was halted when Kurenai appeared out of no where holding his wrist.

"I hope you weren't planning to do what I think you were Naruto-kun." Kurenai said rather off handily as she watched Naruto's face light up with surprise at being caught.

"Ummm… of course not sensei! I was um… you see… I was, I was just going to throw the bag at the top of the building so we can paint the parts that are too high to reach." Naruto declared with a sheepish grin, well aware that Kurenai would not buy such a cheap cover up.

"If that's what you were trying to do, which I doubt Naruto, then I have a better way. You see, I requested this particular D-Rank mission so that we can start our first training exercise at the same time." Kurenai paused to call Shino and Hinata over before finishing her explanation.

"Now, you three are to paint the entire outside of this house with the colours that were pre-selected. I will help if the need arises but this is meant to be a team building mission and as such you three will do it together. We have until the end of the day so you should have plenty of time to complete it." She watched all three of her students glance over at the two story house in shock, each of them wondering how the hell they were going to paint the places they couldn't reach.

Hinata, dispite her better judgement, was the first to question the order. "Um… K-Kurenai-sensei? H-How are we s-suppose to paint the second f-floor? It's to h-high for us to reach without l-ladders and they haven't s-supplied us with one."

Kurenai smiled seeing that all three had noticed that same problem, but as she said to Naruto just moments ago she had a training exercise to fix it. "Easy Hinata-chan, you just follow my example." Slowly walking past her students, Kurenai picked up a large brush and gently dipped it into the light blue pant before walking towards the house and stopping directly in front of the wall.

Without looking back Kurenai placed her right foot on the wall, and to the astonishment of her students, she followed it with her left foot as she started walking up the vertical wall like one would walk on the ground normally.

"WHOA! How do you do that sensei? Is it a jutsu? You have to teach it too me." Naruto begged as he bounced up and down in excitement as Kurenai walked to the top of the building and painted a small section near the roof before walking back down and handing the brush to Shino. Ignoring Naruto's begging as he exploded in front of her with a mirage of questions.

"It is not a jutsu as such, but rather a training exercise to improve chakra control. Something all ninja require to properly utilize all jutsu. The exercise is quite simple, you just send a small amount of chakra to the soles of your feet, and use it to 'stick' to the wall as you walk up it. It is a good exercise and don't be surprised if it takes you all day just to get the basics, I would start off by getting a running start as it will be easier. Now off you go, you better start right away if you want to be done by sundown." Kurenai ordered with a wave of hand, signalling for them to leave and paint the house while she sat down and observed them. Ready to give advice where needed.

The three members of Team 8 hurried off to grab a brush and paint as they were eager to attempt walking up the house wall. Although Naruto was by far the most enthusiastic, and being the impatient hanyou he is, he didn't fully think the exercise through before pumping a large amount of chakra to his feet and charging for the wall. Kurenai would have called out to him when she felt the huge burst of chakra virtually explode from her hanyou student, but she was too slow.

As soon as Naruto's first foot made contact with the wall, the massive amount of chakra he had gathered on his feet instead of sticking to the wall exploded outwards, sending him flying back a good ten meters.

"Too much chakra and you will be blown off the wall Naruto-kun. To little and you will not stick. Try to find a balance that is good for your body." Naruto sat up and nodded at his sensei's advice before lowering the chakra he used to an absolute minimum and trying again, and unfortunately being blown off once again.

Shino observed Naruto's attempts to walk up the wall fail over and over again before he himself attempted. Although unlike Naruto, Shino didn't have an obseenly huge amount of chakra and was able to get a ruff estimate of how much was needed. As soon as he felt his first foot touch the wall he could feel it 'stick' and quickly proceeded to take a few more steps before his control slipped and he fell. While he hadn't reached the top he had taken four full steps.

"Well done Shino-kun. Making more then one step on a first attempt is an impressive feat, keep trying and you should have it down with a few hours."

At hearing Kurenai's praise Naruto watched in envious anger as Shino made a full four steps once again. He had tried five times already and all he got was a sore head for being blasted into the ground.

Growling in frustration, Naruto glanced around for Hinata as he knew his best friend had already completed a few chakra control exercises because of her Gentle Fist style but he was a little worried when he couldn't see her. However, his ears twitched slightly when they heard mirthfully giggling from near the top of the house.

"Hehe, I-I did it N-Naruto-kun. I m-made it to the t-top already!" Looking up to where he could hear his best friend's voice, Naruto's eyes almost burst out of his head when he saw Hinata sitting on the roof top smiling brightly at him.

"That is _really _impressive Hinata-chan to be able to perform the exercise on your first attempt!" Kurenai complemented. "Although I should have expected it with you being a Hyuga. Your clan has some of the most fine tuned chakra control in all of Konoha."

Hinata blushed a bright red and the praise and tried to hide her head in her jacket as she lent over the roof's edge to paint the top. She tried desperately to not glance at Naruto as she knew he would be upset at doing so terribly compared to herself and Shino, but when she heard him yelp in pain at being blown back again she couldn't wait any longer and quickly ran down the wall to see if she could help him.

Naruto growled darkly as he picked himself up from the ground for the tenth time, his tails thrashing wildly as his frustration quickly rose at his inability. His teammates had both already done so well and Hinata especially got it on her very first try! He was so wrapped up in his own frustration that he didn't even realise that Hinata had rushed to help him.

As soon as he heard her footsteps he quickly turned to face her, immediately noticing she had her Byakugan active Naruto smiled as he felt his heart warm. Hinata would always know when he was upset or frustrated and would always drop what she was doing to help him. It was yet another thing that he genunily loved about her, she was so kind and thoughtful of others, and it made him fell a little guilty that he had distracted her from her task.

"I-I can see y-your chakra Naruto-kun, y-you are using f-far too much. T-Try to focus chakra to y-your feet again." Hinata focused her Byakugan eyes on his feet as he did as she instructed. Observing the way his chakra moved Hinata nodded a few times as she analysed how much chakra he was overloading his feet with.

She quite loved watching Naruto's chakra with her Byakugan, it was so unique compared to everyone else's. Whereas everyone else's was just a plain fiery blue, his was a literal explosion of red and blue, each of them constantly fighting each other within his body created the most breathtaking display anyone would ever see. And with her improvement recently she could also see the numerous chakra points within his body shining brightly, like stars within a vast ocean of fire.

"You as s-still using too m-much Naruto-kun. Hold s-still and I'll see i-if I can block a few c-chakra points to make it easier." Hinata desperately tried to control her blush as she released what she had actually said. While such a task made sense as it would lower his chakra flow, it meant she would actually have to physically touch Naruto and the thought alone was making her heart race in nervousness.

Naruto stood perfectly still as he watched and _felt_ Hinata strike a few of his core chakra points, each hit closing off another point and lowering his chakra flow significantly. _'Gentle Fist my butt! This freakin hurts!'_

Hinata focused her strikes as carefully as she could so that no excess damage would be done to his body as she closed approximately 23 of the major chakra points around his abdomen and legs. She could easily see that his chakra flow had diminished substantially in his legs and was worried she may have cut off too much, but when he started walking around after she stopped her worries were put to rest.

As soon as Hinata had stopped sealing his chakra points he took a few experimental steps around to see if he could still move. His legs felt surprisingly heavy, but it wasn't something he couldn't handle. Thanking his best friend with a big smile, the one he always seemed to reserve for her and only her, he quickly took off towards the wall.

Readying himself as he approached it, he was shocked when he felt his first foot pull itself to the wall and almost lost concentration as he began to take a few more steps up the wall. He heard Hinata cheer excitably as he took a total of seven steps up the building, but as he turned to grin at her his concentration and focus on his chakra was lost and he felt himself beginning to fall as he was once again blasted away.

Naruto struck the ground harshly, but instead of feeling the pain of hitting the hard dirt he was a little surprised to land on something quite soft and warm. Opening his eyes his heart nearly skipped a beat when he realised he had landed on top of a rather surprised Hinata.

As he tried to scramble off of her and appologise he once again found himself lost in her beautiful eyes, eyes that still had their Byakugan active. Most people found the Byakugan to look rather scary but Naruto had always thought that they just added to Hinata's already amazing beauty.

Feeling her under him he quickly felt the same feelings return to him as he heart rate increase as he moved his gaze away from her shocked eyes and towards her slightly open mouth. Memories of his foxy kiss he had given her filled his mind and he found himself mesmerized by her lips, unconsciously leaning in towards her.

'_Is it wrong? Is it really alright that I feel like this? Hinata-chan means everything to me, more then anyone else ever has. I know what I feel is real, but is it right? Is it right that a Demon has fallen for an Angel?'_

Naruto had asked himself these questions so many times over the last few days, and especially since that kiss he gave her in the morning when she fainted. He had been feeling so guilty about it all day and had been trying desperately to hide his guilt from her. But laying here, on top of her just centimetres from her beautiful face Naruto found it hard to concentrate on anything but her rosy red lips.

Unable to resist the urges and feelings any longer, Naruto resigned himself to his instincts. Lowering himself as he closed the distance between their faces. He noted the slightly frightened look on Hinata's face, but he ignored it completely. He needed her to know how he felt, and if he couldn't tell her he could easily show her. He needed to feel her lips against his again he needed to feel her warmth spread though him once again, except this time she would be awake and it would be a real kiss. A true kiss from someone who truly loves her.

'_I love you Hinata-chan… I just pray that you forgive me for this.'_


	25. Chapter 24: A Blossoming Love

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

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**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Hmm... another three week before chapter release but eh I did say 2-3 weeks. ;P

Anyway, I was going to the particulare events of this chapter till later, but my sister begged me otherwise... and I gave in...

Regardless I do hope you enjoy this chapter release of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plotline and characters of this fanfiction.

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Chapter 24 – A Blossoming Love

Three shadowy figures dashed through the covered underbush of Konoha's largest forest, each of them carefully scanning their surroundings for trouble as they focused on following their target.

The figure on the right spared a quick glance at the two beside her, directing with her blazing white eyes to the location of their target. Nodding in confirmation the three split apart, hoping to catch the target by it's flanks as well as from the front. A simple, yet effective ambush considering their individual abilities.

The figure in the centre, stayed on the path he was following as the other two split from him. Four long furry tails trailing him as he burst forward, pumping large amounts of chakra to his legs as his sensei had directed, increasing his speed exponentially. To anyone but an Uchiha he would have appeared as shadowy blur, his eyes long since unable to keep up with the speeds leaving him to rely on his superior sense of smell and his acute hearing to direct him. While any tree branches posing as obstacles were quickly sliced apart by his razor sharp claws.

He had to get to the target first, the plan they had been taught by their sensei relied on him pushing the target away from its current position. While his two teammates captured him/her.

The third figure, the one on the right, had taken off to his designated location while his teammates took care of directing their target to him. Quickly arming the traps, he laced each one with a sticky substance produced by his beetle companions. The super adhesive substance was easily tracked by those who were training to detect its subtle smell. While its goal wasn't to help capture the target, that was the trap's job, it was more meant to coat the target so that they could track him/her down again easier if he/she got away.

Having completed his assignment in the mission, he hid himself behind a small Genjutsu his sensei had taught him, which blended him into the colours of the surrounding forest to allow him to fool their target. Allowing for an easier capture if the target evaded the first traps he set.

The only female of the three continued to route around the target, watching carefully his/her location with her all-seeing eyes. Hers and her foxy teammate's task was to manuvour the target to their third teammate and if the opportunity arose she was to use her Gentle Fist to quickly disable them.

Her powerful eyes saw their target suddenly dart to the left, heading down a path that would mess with their plan. Reacting quickly she cracked open a small vial and let its liquid contents settle in her hands as she continued to shadow the target.

Within seconds her foxy teammate appeared by her side and followed her holding his nose closed with one hand. The vial she had cracked open contained a very powerful smelling substance, one that her teammate could easily detect with his sensitive nose and follow it to her location.

"Target has strayed from the aligned path, I need you to set it back on the right one." She commanded in a hushed tone, her usual stutter vanished from the levels of adrenaline pumping through her veils.

Her foxy teammate nodded slowly before taking of in a surprising burst of speed, attempting to pull on his dark chakra to unleash a barrage of illusions to distract their unsuspecting target. He had begun meddling with his illusions recently, forming some that resembled horrors from the darkest of nightmares. These ideas of morbid illusions came to him when his sensei was explaining how she was able to invoke such fear in her enemies by her Genjutsu, that they would be so petrified they could barely lift a finger to guard from her attacks.

And it was these nightmarish illusions that he was going to utilize to 'distract' the target. And determined to end this mission as soon as possible, he speed off so quickly he didn't even catch the blush that had covered his teammate's face when his tails brushed against her.

The last of the three didn't flinch a muscle as he heard all many of wailing screams and horror filled cries pour from the trees around him. He had had a feeling that his teammates might need to 'realign' their target and that they might have to resort to some of his hanyou teammate's more… vivid illusions and tricks.

He himself had bore witness to a few of them, and unlike most Genjutsu which he could easily break, illusions of horror that you can't touch or feel can be quite unsettling.

Suddenly hearing a rustling in the bushes behind him, he steeled himself for a fight as he reached for a kunai. Shifting his position carefully he peered behind his cover, observing his traps and waiting for the right moment to spring them. He didn't have to wait very long, as almost as soon as he turned around the target burst through the trees, its shadowy figure blending almost perfectly with the dim light that filtered through the canopy. Its only key feature that was easily visible were its glowing eyes, eyes filled with incomprehensible horror.

Whatever illusions his teammate had used he could guaranty that it was overboard judging alone from the eyes of their target. But, when he noticed the agitated and paranoid jumps and sidesteps he knew that the cruel illusions obviously had its pluses as the target was so terrified that he/she ran straight through the centre of the traps he had armed.

Within an instant dark smoke covered the forest, obscuring his view of the results of his traps. And within that same second a quick scream of pain was heard… before no more.

As the smoke cleared, Shino smirked in satisfaction at the results of his traps. Moments later Hinata and Naruto emerged from the forest, standing beside Shino and joining him in his smirk as they followed his gaze. The target was bound around the legs, sedated from the sedative dart and locked securely in a small steel-bar cage. The target, strangely enough a ginger cat named Tora, was successfully captured denoting a successful completion of yet another D-Rank mission.

Kurenai materialized out of now where in front of her students, and smiled seeing their handy work. "Well done you three. This is the third time this week that you guys have caught Tora the Cat and I must say that the time you caught him in was quite impressive." Kurenai praised as she slowly walked over to the cat sleeping in the cage. She had specifically requested that each time Tora had to be caught that her team was the one to find him. As not only was it a good mission for teamwork considering the cats experience at running away, but it was also a very suitable mission a beginner tracking team.

Her team had left the carrying of Tora to her, not out of laziness, but rather out of fear. The cat was notorious for _not_ wanting to be caught and taken back to his master and as such would claw anyone who tried to capture him. Naruto had copped a vast array of cat scratches to his face and bitten all along his arms, while Shino and Hinata both had claw marks on their arms. And unluckily for Shino, two of them had left thin but long scars on his left arm.

Hoisting the caged cat over her shoulder Kurenai nodded to her team as they began to slowly walk back to the Hokage Tower, two of her students shyly holding hands as they smiled at each other.

Hokage Tower

Sarutobi was tired. He was getting fairly old now and it took him longer and longer to get things done as the days went by. Luckily today was a fairly easy day, having almost no paper work or meetings basically all that would happen was various Jonin would file into his office and request missions for their Genin teams. The latest missions he had given out was a dog walking mission to Team 7 and 'Capture the Tora' mission to Team 8.

A smile graced his aged face when he thought of the young genin teams, they were Konoha's strongest batch of genin in generations and he could truly feel that each one carried the will of fire. He knew that they each held such potential, and would grow to be Konoha's greatest.

A polite knock on the door brought him out of his daydreaming and he answered strongly that they were welcome in. It was to his great surprise however, when the door opened revealing Team 8. He had just sent them to track down Tora the Cat barely an hour ago and yet here they were, casually strolling back into his office with Kurenai holding said cat in her arms.

"Team 8 under leadership of Kurenai Yuuhi reporting for the successful completion of 'Capture Tora the Cat'." Kurenai spoke in a formal tone as her and her team walked forward, presenting Tora.

Almost instantly a rather large but very well dressed woman burst forward and snatched the cage, quickly opening it and giving the barely conscious cat a bone-crushing hug causing him to meow out in objection to the painful affection of its master. "Oh Tora! Don't worry mummy's found you again. Mummy loves you so much! Yes she does, oh your such a good little kitty cat." Everyone in the room, including the Hokage, had to wince as they watched poor Tora get almost snapped in half from the large woman's hugs. The same thing happened every time they retrieved Tora so they knew damn well why he always ran away.

As she calmed down the woman casually strolled over to a few of the Hokage's advisors, handing them a small sack of money in payment for the D-Rank mission. Still holding Tora in a death like grip.

Now normally Naruto would find the situation absolutely hilarious, well the first time he did. But this was the third time they had captured and returned Tora and each time his ears could easily pick up on the sounds of bones cracking so he actually felt quite sorry for the poor cat, despite on how much trouble it caused him and his team. Plus, he knew who the woman was, she was the Daimyo's Wife, the Lady of the Land of Fire. She basically ruled his country so it would be considered a grievous insult to laugh at her.

After having paid her bill, with modest extra, the plump woman excitably walked over to Team 8 to thank them for their services, as well as to pet Naruto. As the woman always loved animals and had a rather large personal zoo thanks too her wealth and as such found Naruto to be absolutely adorable.

"Thank you so much for finding my Tora poo for me. I don't know what I would have done if you couldn't find him, he can be such a bad kitty. But luckily you could easily sniff him out you little cute foxy." She thanked while reaching out to her favourite member of Team 8, Naruto.

Naruto cocked his head to the side and gave a deep happy growl as the woman began to scratch his ears. He didn't know why the Daimyo's Wife adored him so much, especially considering how important and noble she was and all, but his ears certainly don't object to the attention.

"You know foxy-kun, I'm sure my husband would just love to meet you. I shall have to convince him to come with me when I next visit with Tora." Removing her hand she begun to crush Tora again as she slowly left the Hokage's Office, not even allowing Naruto a chance to recover enough from the petting to reply. "Come on Tora poo, you are all wet and smelly from runny around. A nice bath will clean you up nice."

As soon as she was clear of the office and had walked a fair distance down the hallways her hold on Tora relaxed to a comfortable one and her carefree and boisterous attitude vanished. A small sly smile formed on her face as she thought more on the hanyou she had come to like. "Yes… My husband will indeed like to meet you. It's not every day that a hanyou is found in the world, especially a kitsune hanyou. You are most interesting Naruto Uzumaki, an interest I am certain my husband will share."

"Alright team, we have completed our second mission for the day so I will give the rest you the rest of the day off to do as you wish. Training starts at 7:00am tomorrow and I expect to see improved results in your individual tasks I have set you." Kurenai stated, giving her team a smile before disappearing in a burst of smoke, leaving quite a baffled Team 8 in the middle of the Hokage's office.

"Um… What just happened? Kurenai-sensei never gives us the afternoons off? She usually does sparing sessions or physically training." Naruto questioned rhetorically, already having an idea of what she might be up to from a few scents he had caught from her.

"S-She did s-seem a little distracted this morning. Do y-you think that something's w-wrong?" Hinata may have not been able to smell like Naruto could, but having her Byakugan allowed her to be granted great insight into a person when looking at them with it active. She wasn't as talented with that part of the Byakugan as Neji was, but she was at least able to pick up that something was pulling at their sensei's attention.

"It is at a good time as my father requested that I come home early to help him with a new Hive. As I told you two before high level members of our clan are able to contain more then one Queen within their bodies, this enables them to have many more Kikai within them but the problem is that the drones are only loyal to one queen. We are currently trying to overcome that setback to enable us to have far greater control over our companions by using the multiple Queens to direct the entire Hive within us." Shino explained before politely dismissing himself from the Hokage and from his friends. Although he did see a slightly disappointed look when he bade them farewell, he knew they really wanted to see his clan's research ever since he first told them, but clan secrets are clan secrets after all and as such even his teammates weren't allowed to see.

Naruto was a little disappointed that he was pretty much ditched by his sensei and teammate but it worked out regardless. "Hmph stupid sensei leaving us. Anyway I guess I will be off too, Anko-neechan said she wanted some help getting Sasuke-teme's sensei's mask off or something. And if it's a prank then I am soooo there." As everyone watched Naruto explain his afternoon they all paled slightly when they saw the purely evil grin forming on his face at the very thought of pranking someone. They just all hoped that Kakashi saw it all in good humour otherwise he could beat the crap out of both Naruto and Anko.

"Anyway, I'll see you later Old Man, Hinata-chan. Oh and I'll make sure to be at whatever that thing is your father has tonight Hinata-chan." Barely anyone had a second to reply before he had bolted off, almost breaking the office doors in his hurry to leave. They all knew he was easily excited but they couldn't understand where he got his energy from to rush everywhere all the time.

Looking around her at the Hokage and his advisors Hinata quickly became very nervous as she was suddenly left alone in the Hokage's office. She never liked being the centre of attention and she disliked being stared at even more. Nervously pushing her fingers together she gave a small expectant bow to the Hokage, waiting for his dismissal.

"It's all right Hinata-chan you may leave. Your team has done quite well over the past week, you should be proud of your ability." Sarutobi complemented the young genin while smiling. He knew she wasn't use to being left on her own and he himself had to wonder why Naruto didn't invite the Hyuga heiress with him. Although Sarutobi could see something different in both Hinata's and Naruto's eyes, something that put him at ease and showed that he didn't need to worry.

Hinata had been wondering the same thing as Sarutobi as she quickly left his office, she quite loved watching Naruto's pranks unfold as they were always hilarious but never harmful to anyone.

As she began walking down the long echoing hallways of the Hokage's Tower she began to feel a little lonesome and abandoned by her team. She knew that they would never intentionally do such a thing, but having lived her whole life spending every day with Naruto whenever he wasn't present she always felt like something was missing from her life.

Suddenly feeling something touch her from behind she froze in surprise, but quickly relaxed when she realised it was one of Naruto's tails wrapping around her waist affectionately. Causing a small blush to appear on her face.

"You didn't think I would really leave you by yourself Hina-Tenshi?" Naruto whispered in her ear in a hushed tone as he embraced her from behind, resting his head ever so gently on her shoulder. His warm breath tickling her neck, she felt her heart rate jumped from both surprise and from his contact.

As his arms held her to him gently, she could feel the heat from his body engulf her, filling her completely with his love as she felt his strong heart beat against her back. Shyly reaching up with a hand, she gently rubbed the whisker like marks on his face as she turned her head slowly to him, a beautiful smile formed on her face when she saw the emotions swirling within his glowing blue eyes.

Love, such incalculable and never-ending love could easily be seen within those red-rimmed sapphire eyes she had fallen for so many times. And as she looked at him he smiled brightly at her, the smile that was only for her, before leaning closer and gently kissing her cheek causing her to giggle and blush even brighter.

"You should know that I would never leave you alone. Besides, I'm sure Anko-neechan will understand that I don't help her today, she did after all try to blow me up with that crazy new Jutsu of hers." Hinata giggle at the reason. She remembered that rather funny part of the morning but she also remembered the reason for Anko using that Jutsu.

"But Naruto-kun, didn't Anko-san attack you b-because you stole her dango that morning?" Her stutter had improved dramatically over the past week, she was still the same nervous Hinata, but for some reason whenever she was held by Naruto the comfort he provided her seemed to ease her nervousness and she would feel so much more confident and calm. Almost like a part of him was transferred to her with his every touch.

Naruto just gave a big cheeky smile at being caught, but he had boasted it rather loudly to her so it wasn't surprising that she remembered.

"Yer… I guess I deserved it." That was the last words heard from them both as they leant closer to each other.

They stayed like this for what seemed like hours, just happily standing in each other's embrace as they listened to the sound of the other breathing. They couldn't believe what they felt, it was greater then anything either of them could imagine but they both knew what they felt was real, their love for the other was true.

Throughout their lives they have always been there for each other, treasuring and valuing every moment they spent together as they helped each other grow. But now things felt different, everything that they seemed to take for granted, every touch, every kiss they shared held such a more powerfully meaning that it was hard to understand.

Everything with them had changed the moment Naruto had confessed his feelings and Hinata hers. But it was a change that they both knew was a good one.

It was a moment Hinata would never forget and would always cherish. She didn't know what she had done, or who she had prayed to that had answered her prayers, but somehow Hinata was granted her most precious of wishes: Naruto's love.

**Flashback: One week earlier**

Naruto slowly trudged home, his tired and aching body literally dragging itself along the ground, leaving four trails in the dirt from his equally aching tails. Today hadn't gone how he had planned at all.

Today had supposed to be a good day, he had training with his new team and they even had their first mission. Admittedly it was a rather crap mission but it was still his teams first mission and as such it should have been loads of fun. But sadly he had been foolish, when he had fallen on Hinata he had been so caught up in his feelings that he had kissed her again.

The feelings that had coursed through him at the display of affection were incomprehensible, it was like everything that had happened to him his entire life meant nothing to him when compared to that kiss. It felt beyond wonderful, but in a way he felt seriously guilty about the whole thing.

For starters Hinata had passed out from fright at how close he was and then Kurenai had lectured him for almost a full hour on how disappointed she was that he had taken advantage of a girl like he had. Kurenai had admitted to him that his affection of her was obvious but his ways of going about everything was very wrong and inappropriate, and not only that but it was also very disrespectful for not thinking about how Hinata felt about all of this.

She had then proceeded to drill him into the ground by running laps around the entire Yamanaka Estate until Hinata woke up. She had also told him that she would not give him serious training until he had spoken to Hinata about how he felt as he was getting far too distracted to be trained properly.

And then there was the thing he was feeling so guilty about as he continued to walk home: when Hinata had woken up, he was far to frightened and cowardly to tell her what had happened and how he felt that he had practically ignored her all day. She hadn't seemed to remember the kiss he gave her, showing she had obviously passed out just before he did, but he could see the tears that were welling up in her eyes as he continued to ignore her attempts to converse with him.

It broke his heart that he could be so insensitive and hurt his best friend like that, but he was truly so confused again that he had no idea what else to do.

Finally arriving at his quite home, he rummaged though his pockets to retrieve the key to the door. He felt like shit and smelt like it too thanks to all the sweating he had done today so he decided the best thing to do was just go have a nice hot shower, wash his tails and perhaps sit on his rooftop for a while and think over how he was going to save the friendship between him and Hinata.

In the Hyuga Main House, small tears and hiccups could be heard echoing softly down the many long corridors of the large estate. If one were to follow the sad sounds they would be lead into the room of the heiress of the Hyuga clan, Hinata.

She could barely comprehend that she was crying anymore, all she knew was the pain that was filling her heart, cutting into her like the sharpest of knives.

Her reason for sadness was her best friend and the one she had grown to love with all of her heart. He had seemed so odd over the last few days but today he had done something she had never even imagined he would do: he ignored her. He ignored her very existence and refused to speak to her. No matter what she said, no matter what she did he wouldn't even look at her, and it broke her young heart.

She didn't know why he was ignoring her, the only thing she could think of was that he was angry at her. She perhaps thought that he blamed her messing with his chakra pathways for him falling on her. But it just didn't seem right, he wasn't like that, if anything he probably felt sad for landing on her but if that was the case then he would have just done what he always did and apologised to her over and over. No, it just couldn't be that, there must have been another reason and the only thing that gave her any help into understanding what was running through his mind was the strange glance he had given her when she had woken up.

It was an odd look, almost like it was filled with sadness and guilt, but if one was to look deeper into the emotions within his eyes they could also see pure happiness and… and something else that she just couldn't identify.

She was so worried about what she had done to upset him that it had reduced her to her current state: crying her eyes out on her bed while holding her old fox plushie tightly. She felt so silly but he was everything to her, and the thought that he would never speak to her again crushed her more then she thought possible.

A light knock at the door surprised her and brought her from her sad thoughts. Quickly composing herself and wiping the tears from her eyes she rushed over to answer her door.

Hiashi had heard the soft sound of his daughter's tears echo throughout the Main House hallways and was immediately worried about her. His daughter had only ever cried four times, and one of those was when her mother was murdered.

Walking towards her room he could feel his heart ache at every tear he heard from her, he loved his two daughters more then anything else he had, and listening to her sad tears allowed him to share her pain and feel the hurt she did. Knocking gently on her door he heard her scurry about her room before rushing to answer.

When she answered his heart almost broke and his face softened, she was obviously surprised to see him and was doing her best to hide her sadness and seem strong infront of him. But looking down into her puffy eyes and seeing her holding that fox plushie Naruto had given to her when they were children, he knew that something was seriously wrong.

"What is wrong my daughter? Why are you crying?" He asked in concern, while placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. He didn't even fully finish his sentence when Hinata crashed into him, holding on to him tightly as she cried fresh tears into his formal kimono.

"I-I-It's N-Naruto-kun… H-He i-i-is angry w-with me and w-won't say w-why… He… H-He ignored m-me all d-day and wouldn't e-e-even talk to me…" She replied between waterfalls of tears and hiccups. She knew it wasn't the Hyuga way to be so silly and get all emotional over such simple things, but to her it didn't feel simple, Naruto was everything to her and the fact that he had never once ignored her in his life was what really hurt and confused her.

Hiashi just chose to embrace his older daughter and let her release away her pain. Words wouldn't have made her feel any better as he could see just how much this was hurting her. Although, he had to puzzle to himself on what she had said, it wasn't like Naruto to ignore anyone as he loved talking with people, especially his best friend. When she said he was angry with her he was shocked, but when she said he wouldn't even speak to her that was a whole other kettle of fish.

"Shhh… calm down my daughter. Explain to me what happened today and what Naruto did to get you this upset." He waited a few moments for her tears to slow, stroking her hair in a calming fashion as he allowed her to settle down enough to talk to him. Admitably he wasn't as good at this sort of thing as he would have liked, but he knew listening to everything would at least help her get it off of her chest.

Hinata didn't really want to tell her father everything, her crush on Naruto and her reaction to a thing so silly was embarrassing enough to her as it was. It was times like this that she really wished her mother was still alive, as she would have known exactly what to do in situations like this. But as her eyes cleared enough of their tears to see into her father's face, she could easily see his concern and could see he really wanted to help her. And after her and Naruto's sisters, her father was the next person who understood Naruto the most.

The pair sat together at the end of Hinata's bed, and through her tears she slowly began to explain to him her day. How it had started an easy mission to paint a house of the Yamanaka clan, to the walking vertically chakra training exercise, to Naruto's problem with the exercise and her help, to eventually her waking up and then Naruto virtually ignoring her existence all day. Although the whole explanation was more then a little embarrassing to her, she had to admit that she felt a whole lot better about it and her crying had long since stopped.

Hiashi had to hid his knowing smirk as his daughter finished telling her problem about the hanyou she so adored. He could understand why Naruto had avoided his daughter and probably could guess spot on what had happened when Hinata past out when Naruto fell on her. He knew how much Naruto admired her and had know for a long time on how she felt about him, and although it wasn't his place to interfere with their personal lives, Hinata was after all his eldest daughter and her happiness was above all else. Besides, he had made that promise all those years ago to his beloved wife, and he would keep it no matter what.

"I think I might know what was troubling Naruto-kun, my dear daughter. How about we pay him a visit tonight and sort things out between you both?" Hiashi again had to stop himself from smirking when he daughter shot from his comforting hug, stammering over and over again all sorts of excuses on why she couldn't go. Although he knew it was just from embarrassment and nervousness of actually talking to Naruto right now above everything else.

"No I believe it would be best if we sort this thing out as quickly as possible, something is definitely bothering Naruto-kun and he needs to know that whatever it is is hurting you.

Hinata really didn't want to confront Naruto about this, as she was afraid it would only make things worse as she knew that he hated being forced into anything, including explaining himself when he didn't want to. But despite what she said her father would continue to find reasons against her hesitations and so eventually she reluctantly agreed to go speak to Naruto with him. It put her heart at rest knowing she would soon find out what was bothering him, but it also made her worry that his reasons might be something she doesn't want to hear.

Naruto stepped out of the shower feeling a little more refreshed then he did before, a forlorn and sad look still adorning his face as he proceeded to dry his tails by spinning them all rapidly. His sad mood just turned sour when all four of his tails decided to puff up, denoting the next few hours were going to be needed brushing them straight again.

Sighing to himself at how stupid he felt he quickly dried the rest his body with a towel before grabbing a small fur brush and left his bathroom. The hallway of his house wasn't very long, being only a few meters to the end. But leaving the bathroom and looking down it almost made him feel sick as it seemed to lengthen before his very eyes. It felt weird as he traversed it, almost like with each step he took it got longer and longer quite similar to how it felt to traverse that sewer of a mind he had.

'_Tell her… she is a part of you… she needs your love… and yet you do nothing but ignore her in fear of telling her… she doesn't deserve your tainted cowardly love…'_

It was the guilt he felt that was talking to him. The guilt of everything that was worrying him and confusing his mind. Looking out at his kitchen/dinning room as he entered his stomach growled in anger at not being fed yet as he glanced at his Ramen Cupboard, but despite his hunger he really didn't feel like eating.

Walking away from his kitchen he opened one of his windows and leapt out it. They say cats always land on their feet when they fall, but cats had nothing on the grace he possessed as he landed. Utilizing the chakra exercises his sensei had been teaching him, he cushioned his landing but pumping chakra to his feet, then using his enormous strength he sprung upwards, flipping over several times before landing firmly on his rooftop.

The first few times today that he had down such a… unique use of the chakra manipulation exercise he had several injured himself, but in just a day he was not only able to walk almost 3 full meters up any vertical surface but he was also found he was able to utilize his vast chakra supplies to overload the technique and thus do things most others could not: such as cushioning their falls and firing themselves off walls like cannon balls. Notably they were rather odd uses for his large chakra supply but they were indeed useful from improving his general chakra control, which was something his sensei was happy for. And it also helped him not injure himself as much when he kept falling off that house's walls when he was painting it.

Sitting down in his usual spot, Naruto tried his best to clear his mind as he gazed up at the stars and moon while brushing the nots out of his tails. It was an odd habit to like looking up at the night sky, but he found it granted him an odd sense of peace, whether it be just him or if it was because Hitomi use to like watching the stars while cuddling him and Hinata he didn't know.

Thinking of his surrogate mother caused his already poor mood to just darken more. Even after all these years he could still feel the hole in his heart at her death. She and Hinata had saved him from a life of complete loneliness, Hinata had become his best friend while Hitomi had become his mother, both of them filling places in his life that could never again be filled.

As tears threatened to fall from his eyes, he quickly flicked a tail up to wipe the forming droplets away before continuing to look at the stars. They were beautiful to him, each one a sparkling light of hope, shining brightly amongst an endless sheet of black. He liked naming the brightest stars after each person who was close to him, it was a traditional he had started when he was young and he didn't have many stars named, but as time passed on he found himself reminded more and more each night as he counted the named stars of how many people that were precious to him that he had in his life.

"Naruto Uzumaki! I believe you and I need to have a talk!" The commanding voice was completely unexpected as Naruto had been completely absorbed into the night sky, and at the sound of Hiashi's voice he jumped at being started. Causing him to slip on the roof and tumble down.

A heavy thump and a yelp later, Hiashi smirked as Naruto slowly pulled himself off of the pavements. "Hmm… A little disappointing Naruto-kun, I thought you were always suppose to be alert to your surroundings. Such a waste of those powerful ear's and that nose of yours." Hiashi egged hoping to get a reaction out of Naruto. Which predicably he did.

"What? I am so alert! I was just looking up at the stars like I always do! But I'll-" Naruto caught himself from saying any more, aware now as he looked up from the ground that Hiashi wasn't here just by himself but also with Hinata. "O-Oh… Hello, H-Hinata-chan." Naruto said quietly, and with an odd stutter to his words as he desperately tried to compose himself and keep his glance focused on Hiashi.

Naruto's reaction to seeing Hinata proved his thoughts and Hiashi frowned in disappointment that Naruto wasn't able to solve his feelings out by himself. "Oh well if that is all you were doing then I guess my talk can wait. But I _will _be leaving Hinata here for a while while I attend to some matters at the Yamanaka clan. I believe you two have a few things to discuss anyway." Hinata's eyes widened at her father's statement, he was going to be the one doing all the talking and now she was going to be left to talk to Naruto by herself!

Hiashi didn't leave any room for argument as he held his hand up to silence Naruto as soon as he went to speak, being part Kitsune meant the young boy was crafty and could quite easily talk his way out of anything he didn't want to do. Seeing Naruto cease his argument at the first gesture told Hiashi how confused Naruto really was, but if the hanyou didn't get his act together soon then he would continue to hurt Hinata and that was something Hiashi would not stand for.

Leaning down to Naruto's ear Hiashi whispered low, low enough for only Naruto to hear. "_You have really hurt Hinata-chan with your actions today Naruto-kun. If you don't sort out your problems you will only push her away. I know how much she really means to you._" The last sentence caused Naruto to freeze, whether it be from the fact that he just stated that he knew of Naruto's feelings towards his daughter or if it was from the much deeper meaning he wasn't sure. But with his message delivered, he simple stood up and bid his farewell as he left the two teenagers alone.

Well, alone except for the fact that he was planning on watching them carefully from a distance with his Byakugan. He was Hinata's father after all and while he approved of them being a couple, he didn't approved of the teenage hormones that would no doubtably be showing themselves in the next few years.

Naruto sighed as he looked down at the ground, he was nervous about telling his best friend anything, but he knew it was something that he needed to sort out soon. Lifting his head slightly he flinched slightly when his gaze met Hinata's, he could see the pain, the hurt the he had inflicted upon her. They were so similar in that respect, they needed each other so much, that without the other they fall apart.

Hinata smiled nervously as she met Naruto's cerculean blue eyes, her heart raced as they seemed to sparkle at her, while his wild blond hair shimmered in the moonlight. He seemed to jump slightly at seeing her, but for some reason he still held a smile for her.

Tilting his head slightly to his roof, he leapt up and sat down in the centre, patting the spot next to him with his tail. While she didn't have the sheer strength to actually jump that high, she was able to easily follow him by walking up his walls. Walking to him she sat down gently next to him as close as she dared, a small blush adorning her face as she felt one of his tails curl gently around her wrist.

Considering his weird behaviour today she thought that action odd, but as she glanced at his face she could tell he wasn't really concentrating on anything. He was looking up at the stars, a strange far-off look as he watched them, the moonlight giving him a mysterious yet handsome look.

Hinata was lost looking at him, he seemed so uncertain and… afraid? Something that looked completely odd on his always happy and cheerful face and she could only wonder what things she had done to upset him.

Deciding it was best to just wait for him to start talking, she turned her gaze to the heavens and joined in watching the night sky with him. An odd sense of peace washing over her as she remembered all the times she and Naruto had done this with her mother when they were younger.

"I'm… I'm really sorry for ignoring you today Hinata-chan." The sentence was sudden and short, but full of emotion. Naruto looked down from the stars and starred down at the ground, his ears falling down showing his sadness and guilt at his actions.

Hinata was a little surprised to hear speak so soon, and despite her nervousness she really wanted to push for his reasoning. "I-It's ok. I'm j-just really s-sorry for making y-you angry at m-me."

Naruto's head snapped up her response, a frown passing over his face as he turned to her. A look of complete shock showing he had no clue to what she meant. But as he looked at her sad face, he slowly pieced together the dots and realised that he had made her think he was angry at her by ignoring her.

"Oh no! I'm not angry at you Hinata-chan I never could be-" he quickly responded, a sincere smile reinforcing his statement, "-its just that… that well… I'm just really confused right now. I have things on my mind that I need to sort out." Hinata was overjoyed to hear that he wasn't angry at her for any reason, she knew better then to think that he ever would be angry at her but she just couldn't think of anything else at the time.

"W-What is u-upsetting you N-Naruto-kun? I can help i-if you tell me w-what it i-is?" Hinata asked in a soft and concerned voice.

Naruto seemed to flinch slightly at her words. She had been one of the few to truly see the depths of Naruto's emotions and yet he had never looked so confused, so lost, so fragile like he did right now. His eyes showed that if he was poked he might very well shatter into a thousand pieces, whatever had been worrying him must be something great indeed.

Naruto didn't want to explain, but he knew that if he wanted to save his friendship with his best friend and no longer hurt her, he needed to say something. "It's just… you know… there's this girl I know, and I really like her and its confusing me on how I should act it get her attention."

Hinate froze immediately at his words, a small part of her felt like it cracked as her entire world suddenly turned grey. She felt the crack run deep within her, splitting down her mind and breaking her innocent heart. She couldn't believe the hurt and pain she felt, she want to cry, to scream out, to yell to the heavens on why. She knew he hadn't meant to, and she knew that it may have been her fault for not explain on how she felt earlier, but Naruto had broken her heart and soul like no one else before him. He had taken everything the meant anything to her, all in just a few words.

She turned away from him, desperately trying to hold back her tears, his ears were extra sensitive to her crying so she knew she had to remain strong. But the pain, the aching hurt spreading from her chest so enough almost shatter her mind.

Silent tears fell from her eyes, wetting the roof beneath her. She knew that Naruto would be looking at her in worry but she didn't care, as long as she was turned away he wouldn't see her tears, he wouldn't see just how much she had cared about him, and he wouldn't see just how weak she was to have been broken so easily.

Naruto's head was cocked slightly in confusion to the odd reaction of his best friend. He knew that she would be surprised by such a statement, but this reaction was a little weird. He assumed she was just digesting the sudden information and left her to her thinking, not even noticing the inner turmoil that was truly hurting his best friend, or noticing that she had started to grip the tail that had wrapped around her wrist.

A few minutes had past after Naruto had spoken and he had returned to watching the stars. Hinata had spent the time cursing herself for her inability to tell Naruto her feelings while desperately trying to regain control of her tears.

"S-So what i-is t-this girl l-like?" Hinata suddenly spoke, still having her face turned away from him. Her voice was strange even to herself. It retained its usual stutter, but had lost its life. But the aching pain in her chest made it hard for her to even breath let alone talk or think straight.

That particular question lightened Naruto's mood and his ear pointed up again from the sudden excitement of explaining his answer. "Well she's funny, smart, incredibly strong, very beautiful, and she has the prettiest eyes. She's the most amazing girl I have ever met… she's… she's like an Angel to me."

It hurt Hinata deeply to hear the level of affection he had for this girl. Naruto has never said stuff like that about anyone, and to think of her like an angel? Well that just proved how special she was to him and that his affection was real, and that Hinata had lost out to this girl.

Her tears began to form again as she tried so hard to keep a happy face, for Naruto's sake she needed to be strong. As she had always wanted the best for Naruto and she could easily tell by the way he spoke with such love and adoration that this girl he was talking about really did make him happy. So if this girl made him happy, then Hinata would try to be as happy as she could despite on how much it crushed her little heart that she wouldn't be with the one he loves.

"H-Have y-you told h-her how you f-feel N-Naruto-kun?" She asked in a croaky voice, something that she was thankful Naruto didn't pick up on as she quickly wiped away her tears again before he saw them.

This question seemed to have the complete opposite effect on him then the last one, as his head and ears immediately fell and his gaze dropped from the heavens to the ground.

"No I haven't. And I don't know how… she… she's just too good for someone like me. An Angel doesn't deserve to be loved by a monster such as me." Naruto flexed his clawed hands in front of his face in emphasis, his body a constant reminder that he isn't like everyone else and while more often then not he was quite proud of being a Hanyou, their were times like now where he wished the Nine Tailed Fox truly never existed.

A small spark ignited within Hinata, a spark of anger that twisted within her at his words overpowering her better judgement and sadness. Causing her to yell out uncharacteristically.

"B-But why?" She yelled in question, shocking the currently emotional Hanyou at her outburst. "W-Why would y-you think t-that Naruto-kun? She s-should be h-happy t-to have s-someone l-like you have feelings f-for her. And if s-she is one of t-those villagers who don't s-see how t-truly wonderful y-you are then s-she doesn't deserve y-your feelings!"

As soon as she stopped, Hinata turned bright red in embarrassment at her momentary out of character moment and turned away from Naruto. Her pain of broken heart was causing her to think irrationally and say things that were completely out of place.

Regardless that her outburst was odd and unexpected, it truly hit Naruto hard and touched the softest places of his heart. Hinata's statement was straight to the point and very very true. And it made him glow with happiness thinking if that's what she really thought then maybe, just maybe she might also think the same once she found out that it was her that he liked.

Although, he felt kind of shameful for not expecting such a statement, she was after all the kindest person he knew and he was shamed himself by doubting her.

"You know Hianta-chan. I never really did thank you." Naruto spoke in a low but soft tone, throwing Hinata completely off guard at the change of subject. She thought he was perhaps thanking her for helping him with the chakra exercise today but was quickly confused when Naruto continued.

"I never really did thank you for saving me that day." Hinata frowned slightly to show her confusion, but that quickly turned to shock when Naruto turned to face her. His face was aglow, it was beaming with happiness as he smiled brightly at her, small tears seemed to be forming in his eyes as he recalled one of his happiest memories.

She had never seen such a look on him before, he had always been a happy and cheerful person, but he had always held a deep rooted sorrow in the back of his eyes from his abusive childhood. Something that she hoped one day would heal, with her, or this new girls help. But right now, right now as he looked at her with those handsome blue eyes and that cute foxy face, she could easily see that he held nothing but pure happiness and content.

"It means everything to me you know Hinata-chan. You saved me that day, and became my first and best friend when I woke up. I would have been lonely without you… you saved me from a life where I don't know what I would have become. You mean everything to me Hinata-chan… my… my Angel." As soon as the last words left his mouth Naruto started praying to whoever was listening that he wasn't a fool for saying them.

It took Hinata a few moments to understand the depths of meanings of his last few words. But as soon as she connected the dots of 'my Angel' her eyes widened and by her own nervous and shy nature she pulled back in shock.

Hinata's quick movement away from him wasn't left unnoticed, his keen eyes watched the way she moved and it cut his heart. _'You fool… she doesn't like you like that and never will…'_ The sheer fright that he may have just ruined his friendship with his best friend caused Naruto to instinctly pull Hinata too him with the tail still wrapped around her wrist.

Unfortunately for him he had forgotten on how much stronger physically he was then her and wasn't ready when she was pulled into him knocking him down while she fell on top.

A few moments passed and neither moved, Naruto because he was too strong and might hurt her if he pushed her off, and Hinata… well Hinata was far to caught up in her sudden change of feelings. One moment she had a broken heart, then next her heart was breaking from the overload of love. She couldn't believe it, after all these years of loving Naruto, he was returning her feelings and without even knowing hers first.

A few moments more and they both went bright red in the face, but instead of scrambling off in embarrassment like usually did, Hinata laid still while tears of joy slowly fell from her beautiful face. "I-I-I… I-I li-li…" She had never been able to tell him, even after all this time, even after what he just said she still was to afraid to tell him.

Looking through the happy tears covering her eyes, Hinata suddenly catch the look in the eyes of the Hanyou under her. They were colder then before, almost distant as he seemed to be desperately looking away from her, almost like he was ashamed by his actions. _'Oh no! He thinks I don't like him like that, come on I can do it!'_

As Hinata desperately tried to speak the words, she unconsciously began to pray. Pray to the one person who was always able to guild her. She prayed once more to her mother for strength.

'_He will be good to you my beautiful daughter… love him like I did your father… I love you… Hinata-chan…'_

Hinata was shocked to hear the beautiful voice resonate within her mind, a voice that she had almost lost to time and yet she easily recognised the loving mother undertone in it. Within moments Hinata could feel a warmth embrace her, a shroud like emanation that seemed to wrap itself loving around her giving her strength and steeling her will.

Before she could even give her actions a moment of thought, she felt her body lower itself as she closed the small gap between them. "Y-Your so silly N-Naruto-kun…"

Naruto's eyes shot wide when he felt something warm press against his lips, an literal explosion of emotion erupt within him as his eyes focused on the beautiful face mere millimetres from his. He could feel it, the warmth, the emotion of the kiss he was sharing with the girl he had grown to love was surging through him, highlighting every sense and aspect of his body. But most of all, he could feel the love, the pure love that Hinata was sharing with him, with their first real kiss.

Hinata pulled back slowly, a sudden feeling leaving her as their lips parted, the feeling replaced with an urge for more, to feel that feelings of complete happiness when she kissed him. "I-I… I like you too… N-Naruto-kun."

Suddenly releasing what she had actually done, Hinata jumped back, furiously trying to get off of Naruto as she apologised profusely for her actions, a scarlet red lighting up her face in the dark night.

But Naruto didn't let her go, his tail had never released her wrist so when she tried to get up, she just feel on top of him once more. The stayed like that for a few moments, spending the short time gazing into the other's eyes, trying to desperately control the level of emotions they felt raging through them both.

A large gush of wind began to swirl around them both, blowing a blizzard of Sakura Blossoms around them and Naruto's house. Eventually causing a large cyclone pattern in the sky surround the house.

"Where… Where did all the cherry blossoms come from? It's not spring" The strange occurrence was enough to distract the young pair and they didn't even realise that the began to snuggle together as they watched the odd phenomenon.

"Hehe, c-can't you t-tell Naruto-kun? I-its… I-It's the b-blossoming of our h-hearts." Hinata responded in a quite shy tone, testing the waters of their new relationship and how he felt.

Naruto's ears twitched at the words, and a small smile appeared on his face at how sweet they were. Turning to the girl he loved with all his beating heart, he noticed the shy and embarrassed look on her face as she watched him for a reaction.

Leaning forward he gently placed his lips on hers, causing her eyes to widen in surprise, before slowly closing as she melded into the kiss.

Their innocent kiss seemed to last forever, and when they slowly broke apart they found themselves short from breath. A smile of pure happiness and peace on both their faces.

"Thank you… thank you for being with me Hinata-chan. Thank you, for allowing a monster to love an angel… Hina-tenshi." Before she could reprimand him for the self-reference, she melted into his touch as his tails slowly wrapped around her, pulling her into another kiss.

**Flashback End**

Turning slowly to face her Hanyou boyfriend Hinata smiled as happy tears fell from her eyes at the happy memory. She couldn't believe on how lucky she was, Naruto treated her like a real princess and made her feel happier then anything she could have ever imagined.

Every day for the past week that they had been a couple he would do something to show her how special she was too him, whether it just be a small love poem or a largescale Kitsune Illusion of floating hearts and love signs he would do something different to display his affection. They had yet to go on a real date yet, and they hadn't done anything more then kiss and hold each other. Not that she wanted anything further. And she couldn't possibly be happier.

She wasn't sure, but she had an inkling that everything sweet he did was his way of trying to prove he was worthy of her, something that he seemed insistence upon despite the fact that she had told him that his love was more then enough.

Reaching out with a gentle hand, Naruto brushed the hair from her crying eyes. And as she looked up to him he could easily see the love and adoration she held for him, swirling majestically within those blue orbs like raging ocean waters. Reaching down to her, he gently placed his lips against hers, flowing his love to her through another innocent yet sweet kiss they now shared, and sharing their inner most thoughts.

_'I love you... Hina-tenshi'_

'_I-I love you t-too, Naruto-kun.'_

They were both so caught up their moment, that they didn't realise the large breeze that suddenly began to blow around the Hokage Tower as shared a kiss once more, carrying hundreds of Sakura Blossoms around them as it blew.

**Auther Note: **I can guaranty that no one will understand the reference to the 'Wind of Sakura Blossoms' that circle Naruto and Hinata when they kiss. However, if anyone manages to guess correctly I have a special something to give to them. Think of this as a challenge/contest.


	26. Chapter 25: First Real Mission

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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I know I just released this chapter last night but I was informed by my good friend KaliAnn of a missing segment in this chapter. I had actually planned the scene she mentioned as absent and I'm reuploading this chapter with the included scene. It is a small added interaction between Naruto and Team 7's Client.

I... I... I failed... Three weeks before a chapter again. I swear it was done last week but I didn't like a part and redid it. Hopefully you all like this version better.

This chapter denotes the start of Naruto's and Hinata's ninja career and their first real mission. Its a little slow but the following chapters will be quicker paced.

**IMPORTANT!**

Ranger03 created a absolutely adorable drawing inspired by my story. As thanks for creating such a wonderful piece it would be greatly apreciated if all my readers could view it and leave a nice complement on the work. The web address is in my profile.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original characters and plotline in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 25 – First Real Mission

The early morning sun filtered through the light lavender silk curtains of a certain young Hyuga heiress's bedroom. Waking her slowly from her peaceful sleep with its inviting warmth, although it did pull her from another wonderful dream so she wasn't too pleased about it.

Hinata had long since learnt to wake up when the sun first rose, not only because of her family's harsh training regimens were often in the early mornings but also because Naruto always woke up early from his alarm clock and would come to get her.

Thinking of Naruto and also of the sweet dream she had had last night caused a light shade of red to adorn her cheeks as she hid her face under her covers. It was such a beautiful dream, one that she would add to the list of her favourites. It had been about the both of them, they were a little older. Maybe 18-19, and he had taken her out to a nice restaurant and they had spent hours just talking, eating together and gazing into the others eyes.

The next minute the dream had switched to a small park, where Hinata was being pushed gently on the swing, the very first swing she had been on when they first went to the park as kids. As her turn on the swing had ended Naruto had scooped her up with his tails before vanishing in a swirl of flames, transporting himself and her to atop the Hokage Mountain.

On top of the mountain they just sat together in each others arms, watching the beautiful view of Konoha as the sun set before them. As soon as the sun had set Naruto had created dozens of small Fox Fire wisps to dance around them both, before he pulled a small ringbox from his pants.

Sadly, and most annoyingly to Hinata, that was where the morning sun had waken her!

She had been use to having romantic dreams about Naruto as it had been the same for years. But every since they had started 'secretly dating' her dreams had quickly become more mature, often being about marriage or sitting together in their own home as an old couple. But for some reason she really liked this particular dream.

Naruto had worn such handsome attire in her dream and she was really contemplating if she could learn to make such a garment for him. Although she didn't have a lot of time to think about it as Neji suddenly but politely nocked on her door. "Hinata-sama, Naruto-san is in the dining room waiting for you."

Neji smirked knowingly as he heard his cousin jump out of bed a hundred miles an hour, all manor of noises were heard as she seemed to knock over everything in her room as she dashed about to get dressed as quickly as possible. His smirk changed to a knowing smile as she burst out of her room quickly thanking him as she sped down the main hallway.

Neji had found out that Naruto and his cousin were a couple almost the very next day that they had started 'dating' and he had to admit, that despite the fact that he wasn't sure if he agreed with their 'dating' he could easily tell that his cousin was happier then he had ever seen her. She had always had a cheerful and happy smile, but their was just something else these days that he saw, something brighter, something new that showed him just how much Naruto meant to her.

However, he didn't matter on how long those two had been friends or how much they meant to each other, if Naruto hurt his cousin then Neji would beat the living daylights out of him!

Racing into the dining room, Hinata had to suppress her laughter as Naruto seemed to be once again saving the triplets from Hanabi's wrath. Although chances are like always it was probably the triplets fault.

"YOU THREE ARE THE BIGGEST BRATS EVER!" Hanabi shouted, desperately trying to free herself from Naruto's powerful tail so she could kill their three triplet cousins. Hanabi had developed something of a temper these days and would often be set off by the smallest of things. Something that was frowned upon by her father as it was not Hyuga like at all to lose control of ones emotions in such a manor. But it also meant that the triplets could have loads of fun by annoying her.

"Don't be mad-"

"with us Hanabi-neechan we-"

"thought it was for us."

The triplets called out, hiding behind their foxy big brother, holding on to his fluffy tails for their dear life as they shook in fear at the rage in Hanabi's eyes.

Hiashi, who was use to most mornings starting like this, walked into the dining room with an air of superiority. Whispering a good morning to Hinata as he passed her. "I remember telling you Hanabi-chan that you need to learn to keep calm. Yelling out loud is not the Hyuga way." As soon as he spoke and his presence announced Hanabi immediately calmed down and stood tall, bowing slightly before explaining and apologising.

"I am sorry father, I was just angry at these three-" she started while pointing to the terrified triplets. "-as they purposely ate my breakfast that was made for me."

Hinata giggled slightly at her sister's sudden mood change, Hanabi would always try her hardest to act like their father and simulate his mannerisms. Something she found quite cute to watch.

Hiashi frowned slightly at his daughter's explanation, while it was odd for Hanabi to be so angry over something so simple he still thought it best to resolve the issue. "Is that true you three?" He asked, softening his voice a little as he could see they were still scared by Hanabi's rage.

"No we didn't do it-"

"on purpose, the nice cook-"

"said it was our breakfast."

Hanabi however was still quick to flare up, and jumped into the conversation before her father could talk again. "No he didn't you three liars! He said it was my breakfast! Then you three ate it when I went to the bathroom."

Hiashi cleared his throat to remind Hanabi to keep calm and her voice at a low volume. His eyes had been watching both parties intently, keeping track of any sign of lying and he had found that they both told the truth. And he had also easily noticed a rather mischievous grin that was slowly forming on Naruto's face.

"Naruto-kun, that is an interesting look you have on your face. You wouldn't happen to have had anything to do with this would you?" Hiashi asked with a knowing tone. Even without his Byakugan active the boy was an open book to read.

Naruto's smile just increased at being caught. Quickly performing a few handsigns a large pulse of demonic chakra was felt before Naruto's form slowly began to change. At first it was barely noticeable colour changes, but slowly he began to grow in height, his hair shortening and changing colour as his tails and fox ears disappeared. A few seconds later a very mature looking man with lavender eyes and short brown hair in a chef's apron stood in his place, the only thing resembling Naruto was the ever present mischievous grin.

"Hehe, I guess I must have said it was both of your breakfast's." Naruto would have immediately been growling in pain from Hanabi's Gentle Fist strikes if Hiashi had not predicted such a reaction from his strong headed daughter and gripped her shoulder first. The triplets behind Naruto however were another matter and they began pushing and shoving him in annoyance at being tricked.

"Fox-niichan! Why-"

"did you trick us-"

"Like that?"

Naruto just laughed slightly as the three triplets pushed him, or attempted to anyway, before releasing his transformation. As his form reverted back he used his tails to wrap the three triplets up as he snuggled them to him.

"Because that's what big brother's are for. We pick on our little sisters." He said with a big smile as he hugged all three of them. They tried their hardest to stay angry at him, to keep their small cute pouting faces, but in the end all three gave up and hugged him back before squirming out of his hold.

"Naruto-kun, I would prefer that you reframe from such trickery in the future. While I understand it is both your nature and your entertainment, it only disrupts and causing infighting between the younger ones." Naruto's head fell at the mini-lecture and he was about to apologise when his ears twitched at a distinct sound, causing them to rise and his tails to wag happily.

A chuckle, a small giggle of pure tone and sound echoed from the edge of the dinning room, looking up he smiled at his best friend and 'secret' girlfriend as he quickly bounded over to her.

"Good morning Hinata-chan, all ready for a day of training and missions? Hopefully we will get a better one, these last few missions have been kind of boring." Naruto greeted enthusiastically as he always did. In truth he really wanted to hug her, hold her close and maybe even give her a good morning kiss. But he knew he had to be careful, he didn't know on what Hiashi and the rest of the Hyuga clan would think of him dating their heiress and so he and Hinata had decided it was best to keep it secret for awhile longer.

"Good morning N-Naruto-kun. I'll just q-quickly h-have breakfast first okay?" As soon as Hinata met Naruto's gaze, she blushed perfusely at his handsome smile. Just looking at him for a few seconds she could see a silhouette of the older Naruto from her dream form over him. He had the perfect personality, the perfect level of kindness, he was strong would do anything for her and to protect her, and if her dream was an accurate portrayal of what he would look like when he was older then he really was a fox of a catch.

She didn't care if her family might have a problem with her choice of a suitable partner, and she definitely knew that the elders of her clan would object once they found out as they hated the idea of even knowing Naruto. She didn't care that he was a hanyou, or that she would probably be an outcast from the village just like he was. All she really cared about, was one thing only:

That he loved her, and she him.

Naruto nodded in understanding and physically restrained one of his tails from wrapping around Hinata before heading over to the breakfast table. The Hyuga's in the room had no idea why he sat at the table as their hadn't been any food served yet. Hiashi rolled his eyes when he noticed what the odd fluctuation of chakra was in the room before. Another one of Naruto's Kitsune Illusions desolved, revealing the breakfast table full with the food that had been served to them by the branch members that morning.

"Hey! That's cool Fox-niichan-"

"How did you make all the-"

"Food appear!"

The triplets shouted excitably, absolutely in awe and shock not understanding how Naruto's illusions worked. Naruto himself just chose to sit and eat, his big mischievous grin never leaving his face as his Hyuga family joined him.

The family sat in almost complete silence, all of them enjoying their breakfast, or in Naruto's case his fourth breakfast as he had already eaten three cups of ramen at home. The only noise was the three triplets as they spoke quietly amongst themselves, and Neji when he arrived for breakfast also.

Hiashi was thankful for the quite breakfast as it gave him time to both observe Hinata and Naruto's interactions and also to think on what the elders would think of their relationship. He knew that when Hinata turned 16 she would be made to wed another main house member, it was the way and will of the Hyuga clan and had been the same for generations. But Hiashi knew that their was no breaking those two apart, just watching them interact with each other quietly at the dinner table, stealing glances at one another and their far off and happy looks they shared. He knew they were trying to keep it a secret from him, and he understood their reasoning. But they weren't doing a very good job at hiding it.

Just watching them filled his heart as a father, he wanted the best for his daughter and despite Naruto's more 'instinctual natures' he would make a fine husband for her, one that he would definitely approve of. The way those two acted with one another, it reminded him so much of when he and Hitomi were young.

Thinking of Hitomi only steeled his will to help his daughter and Naruto further. She had requested two things of him before she died, to repeat their wedding vows and also to see that if Hinata and Naruto wished to be together then he was to allow it. He knew it would be hard to do. But he was sure that there were rules he could bend to allow it, he just knew that the elders would _not _be happy about it.

As soon as they had finished their breakfast Naruto and Hinata quickly excused themselves before leaving in a hurry. Wanting to get to there team training as quickly as possible.

Naruto always liked spending time with the Hyugas, but he couldn't stand the fact that he knew he was being watched. He had developed a keen sense over the years to judge when people would stare at him, and at times, he found himself hating those people a little for the glares they would give him. But the Hyuga were the worst, the elders in particular would always watch him from a distance, watching and judging his actions like he was some sort of animal.

But it all didn't matter to him, he could take the stares forever if it would allow to spend an extra minute with his Angel. The only thing that really concerned him was would the villagers begin to look at her like they did him: a monster.

As they finally left the Hyuga compound and had travelled enough away from their prying eyes, two of Naruto's tails wrapped around Hinata as he pulled her closer, kissing her check gently. "Hehe, morning Hina-Tenshi."

Hinata blushed slightly at his affection before smiling back at his greeting. It may have seemed a little strange to some, but Hinata really liked the fact that Naruto called her his Angel when they were together. It was a fluffy reminder that she was special and precious to him.

Linking hands with one another, they smiled brightly, their faces tinged with a light pink blush, before they slowly started heading to the arranged destination for today's team meeting: the Hokage Tower.

As they walked together then conversed about many topics, most of them were shinobi business related. But some of it were about them as a couple.

"Hina-Tenshi… are you… are you worried that your family wont allow us to be together? You are the Hyuga heiress after all and well… I'm Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou. I don't want you to get into trouble." Hinata was a little shocked by his words, but she could tell he meant them with kindness. It seemed even after all these years, especially since they got together, he was still worried that being friends with her would get her hated by the rest of the village. That they would treat her like that treated him, like nothing but a monster and a painful reminder of the past.

"I don't care w-what they think N-Naruto-kun. As long as I s-stay with y-you I don't care w-what they think. B-But we will have t-to tell father soon." Quelling her shy nature for a second, she learned forward and returned his kiss on the cheek. Giggling mirthfully as it was Naruto's turn to blush and turn his head away shyly. However, that blush quickly turned to a snarl of anger as his ears picked up his worst fears.

Glancing quickly around him he saw them, all of the villagers around them glaring at him and Hinata, whispering all sorts of hateful things amongst themselves.

"…did you see that? The demon has possessed the Hyuga heiress! Kitsune's are able to possess anyone to do their bidding! He has corrupted the heiress!"

"… disgusting girl, does she know what that monster really is?"

"… ugh! Look at that! How could she ever do that?..."

"… that demon needs to learn his place! He doesn't deserve anything but death!..."

Naruto could take the glares, he could ignore the hateful things, especially with his best friend/girlfriend by his side. But he could **not** take anything said about Hinata. He would not have them treat her like she was some monster. A small rock caught Naruto's eye's, it had been thrown by one of the villagers and strangely enough it wasn't aimed at him for once, but at Hinata. Naruto lashed out instantly, catching the small pebble he crushed it with his powerful clawed hands. That was it, he lost it.

"shut up… shut up… SHUT UP!" He shouted darkly, turning everyone's attention on him as he unconsciously used his tails to shield Hinata from their gaze. "SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU SHUT UP! YOU CAN SAY WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT ME! YOU CAN HATE ME ALL YOU WANT! BUT I WILL NOT LET ANY OF YOU TREAT HINATA-CHAN LIKE SOME MONSTER!"

Hinata was quite surprised by Naruto's outburst, but it touched her that he was defensive of her. But in a way, it also made her sad. Because all she wanted was to make Naruto happy, and having him need to protect her all the time from the villagers would only make him sad. She was very surprised however when she felt a dark pulse emit from Naruto, causing his tails that were wrapped around her to pulse in rhythm with it.

But despite the evil feeling she felt from his Yokai chakra levels increasing, his hold still held a soft warmth about it.

The villagers around the young couple, watched in sudden fear as the demon before them suddenly started yelling viscously at them, flashing his sharp fangs and clenching his claws. To most of them he was just a wild animal, snarling viciously as he considered to attack them. But to a select few who were watching, they actually bothered to listen to his words, and some, if only one or two, actually wondered to themselves on why the 'demon' would actually care what they said about anyone in particular.

Although any thoughts they may have had, malicious or otherwise quickly changed to thoughts of fear as they felt a large pulse of chakra from him. A distinct red chakra that they could remember all to well. The few villagers that remained to watch and didn't run, were frightened beyond belief to see physical changes appear on Naruto's body as his growling turned vicious and savage.

At first they saw his hair spike and grow slightly longer, followed by his claws cracking as the joints extended. But out of all of the changes that were slowly occurring it was his eyes, the blood red slitted eyes holding nothing but bloodlust and murder within them that truly frightened them.

She didn't want him to be mad, she knew he wouldn't actually hurt anyone but she knew using his Yokai chakra in rage like he was now would just cause the villagers to hate him more. Knowing she desperately needed to calm him down she pulled herself free of his protective tails, and hugged him tightly whispering calming into his fluffy ears.

"Please N-Naruto-kun… It isn't w-worth it. I don't care w-what they think. I l-love you for who _and _what y-you are. I d-don't care if they think o-of me as the same."

Almost instantly the pressure and bloodlust in the air completely vanished as Naruto quelled the dark chakra, forcing it back inside him at the sweet words of the girl he loved. Words that truly touched his heart. Turning away from those staring at him in horror and unbridled fear, he looked down into Hinata's pleading eyes with a truly happy smile.

Hinata's face lit up like a Christmas tree when Naruto gave her a quick kiss on the lips. The little pecks before were embarrassing enough as it was, but a full kiss while everyone was watching was almost too much, and if it were a longer one she probably would have fainted on the spot. That's not to say she didn't enjoy the sweet kiss though.

"Thank you Hina-Tenshi."

Gently releasing her, the two just linked hands as they mentally decided to just continue walking, Naruto giving one last quick growl behind him. Leaving the remaining villagers who were watching to stare in confusion at how the Hyuga heiress had calmed the 'demon child' down so easily, and many more were watching in equal confusion on how happy they both looked as they continued to walk away.

Instead of following the main roads through Konoha, they both decided it was best to travel through a few of the less crowed roads. It wasn't uncommon for the two of them to be found walking together as they had been best friends for years, but the villagers were still more then a little shocked to see them walking together holding hands with two of Naruto's tails wrapped affectionately around Hinata as they spoke happily to each other.

Naruto's ears could still hear what they said, but he promised Hinata that he would try and ignore them for her sake. But there was one noise and scent he detected that he didn't want to ignore.

Behind Naruto and Hinata, a small cardboard box rather crudely coloured and camouflaged as a rock shifted slightly as it tried to follow both of them. Naruto lent forward and whispered gently into Hinata's ear, to which she giggled when she learnt about what was following them.

Ignoring the cardboard box for a while, Naruto and Hinata slowly walked to a side alleyway. Leading the box into it and away from the villager's prying eyes. As soon as they were out of sight Hinata let go of Naruto, and in an instant he spun around rapidly and charged at the box, his clawed hands preparing to cleave it into tiny pieces.

"Your disguise is terrible you three!" Naruto called out with a growl as he continued to charge forward.

Mere centimetres from being sliced to ribbons, a loud shriek of fear was heard from the cardboard box before it exploded into three different colours of smoke.

Naruto and Hinata stood in front of the smoke as three different voices were heard talking amongst each other between coughing on the smoke.

"You know, I think we could have used less smoke powder you guys."

When the smoke cleared Hinata and Naruto smiled at the three 10 year old children that had been hidden within it. On the right was a was a small boy with rather large spectacles short brown hair and a plain blue t-shirt and baggy pants. His name was Udon and Naruto always remembered him by a particularly different scent, the scent caused from the boy's seemingly eternally running nose. He was a shy boy, but what he lacked in confidence he made up in intelligence.

On the left was a small girl with bright orange hair pulled back into what looked like twin pineapples. She was shorter then to other two 10 year olds with a cute rosy face and bright green eyes, except currently she was wearing lavender contacts that covered her whole pupil. She was wearing a small orange shirt and white pleated skirt that was perhaps a little to mature for a girl her age. Her name was Moegi.

And in the middle was another boy aged 10, he had brown eyes and average length brown hair that spiked up all around. He had a blue t-shirt and long brown cargo pants that were perhaps two sizes too big. A notable item of clothing he wore was a completely abnormally long blue scarf that even after being rapped around his neck twice was still longer then he was in height. He was the grandson of the Hokage that Naruto had thrown into the wall for being rude to Hinata: Konohamaru.

But out of everything strange about these three kids, the most odd/interesting, was that they all wore hand-made fox ears and a single hand-made fox tail hung from behind them all.

"Wow boss! Your really are good to be able to detect our super-special-kitsune-box-disguise-technique! I was right in choosing you to be my rival!" Shouted Konohamaru, who was quickly followed by equal complement from his two friends.

Naruto and Hinata both quite liked Konohamaru and his friends, they were cute and fun kids that had just started the academy and looked up to Naruto and Hinata with great respect and reverence. As was evident by the imitation foxy features all three of them wore to pretend to be a kitsune hanyou like Naruto, and Moegi's lavender contacts to resemble Hinata's deactivated Byakugan eyes.

The friendship was forged between the older genin and the younger academy students when Konohamaru was trying to escape a few tutoring sessions from his personal training, a Jonin known as Ebisu. Konohamaru hated the guy as he was a rather useless trainer and also tried to get him to do or not do almost everything and it drove him nuts. Ever since that little run in his grandfather's office Konohamaru had sought out Naruto to try and befriend him, something that Ebisu was also against. It had been one of those times where Konohamaru had escaped his trainer that he had accidentally run into Naruto, at first Naruto wasn't happy to see him at all, clearly remembering how rude Konohamaru had been to Hinata. But that had all changed when Ebisu had found the two of them.

Ebisu had demanded that Konohamaru leave the presence of the 'demon child' and return to his 'fast track training'. Naruto had just fobbed the insult off having been use to it his entire life, but had stayed to watch the two of them argue as Konohamaru didn't want to be taught and had voiced his opinion in quite colourful language. Seeing the way they interacted Naruto hadn't been able to resist the urges and decided to prank the Jonin while he was arguing with Konohamaru in response to his obvious dislike of him.

Naruto had found that almost all men in Konoha seemed to be perverts and as such he had 'developed' a number of illusions specialising against them using this knowledge.

Naruto had been right on the money again with Ebisu as he passed out from a sever nose-bleed when Naruto had created an illusion and two dozen naked women standing around him. Konohamaru had been so amazed that Naruto, a boy only 4 years older then him, had defeated a Jonin level ninja with only one jutsu that he had pleaded that Naruto take over his training instead.

While Naruto had been reluctant at first, he had eventually taken the boy to eat some ramen as he explained how his jutsu worked and that it would be impossible for anyone that wasn't a kitsune or part-kitsune to perform. But he had explained to the academy student on how he could mimic it with the academy taught jutsu.

Ever since then, Konohamaru and eventually his two best friends Udon and Moegi would seek Naruto out trying to either caught him unawares or get him to play 'Ninja' with them and/or teach them something cool. All three of the children also held Hinata in the same regard as they believed her to be just as cool as Naruto.

Which is what the three of them had attempted to do today having created a descuise that was suppose to look like a rock to sneak up on Naruto and Hianta. To them it was the perfect disguise and were completely amazed when Naruto had detected them.

"Yeah Boss! We thought you would never discover us. Did Hinata-sempai find us with her Byakugan?" Hinata blushed slightly at being referred to as the younger girl's senior but was able to shake her head and explain that Naruto had simply heard them moving.

The three children shouted out how cool Naruto was to have found them by detecting the noise they made as they moved and Naruto just soaked up the praise with a smile.

"So what are you three doing today? Shouldn't you have classes at the academy right now?"

All three grinned sheepishly at being caught out of class, and surprisingly it was Udon who spoke up to explain. "Well, we have a project we have to do for class and present in two weeks. The project being a demonstration and explanation of a single jutsu. And we were wondering if um… it could be one of yours Boss?" The moment Udon finished his explaination the three kids huddled together, pleading together with the biggest puppy dog eyes Hinata and Naruto had ever seen.

Hinata fell for those eyes almost immediately and had to resist the urge to hug the three children. But she did however slightly tug on Naruto's shirt in a manor to express that he should help them. He was going to help them anyway because he liked teaching the three of them.

"Sure, I'll help you guys, but I can't right now as me and Hinata-chan have to get to the Hokage Tower for an awesome mission! When we get back I'll see what I can do ok?" The three children cheered and bounced around in excitement, they couldn't wait to begin their project now.

"Alright I'll see you three later, Hinata-chan and I are going to be late if we don't hurry up."

The three academy students politely said goodbye to both Naruto and Hinata, but just as Hinata left the alley and just before Naruto turned around the corner too Konohamaru spoke up.

"Hey boss we saw what happened before. Don't worry about the villagers I'll just tell my grandfather and they will all go to prison." Naruto paused momentarily and turned back to smile at the three children, to tell the truth the offer was interesting but he knew better and that it would only cause more problems for him and Hinata if he had such an action taken and as such declined Konohamaru's offer.

Hokage Tower

When they spotted Kurenai and Shino waiting at the base of the Hokage Tower Naruto and Hinata quickly ran up to them apologising for being late as they did so.

"It's alright you two we only just arrived here also. When you three are ready we will go get a D-Rank mission from the Hokage and if we finish it fast enough we may try to take another before we start training. I also hope to see some improvement on the wall-walking technique Naruto Uzumaki." Kurenai had to hide a smile when she saw Naruto's eyes widen and his ears drop, easily indicating that he still couldn't do it.

Naruto personally found it unfair, Hinata and Shino were able to easily complete the chakra exercise and had even moved onto the next more advanced one: using a continual flow of chakra to stand and walk on the surface of water, while he was stuck still trying to lower his chakra enough to even walk up a wall a few meters. Although he did find it quite fair that his sensei was spending more time with him trying to help him perfect the basics instead of advancing his teammates even further. Kurenai had told him that a team is never balanced if there is a single member left to fall behind.

While he found it rather offensive to be referred to as 'falling behind' he was quite happy that his teacher was one who didn't think of him like the rest of the village and actually even took time out of her own schedule to make sure he was growing well with the team. He found her to be a stern, but caring and sensitive sensei, instructing him harshly and expecting results, but at the same time caring enough to help him in particular when he got stuck. Aspects that reminded him often of his mother and had garnered a lot of respect from him.

Lifting his head suddenly he looked up at his sensei and smiled sheepishly, "I'm getting their Kurenai-sensei, I'm training and getting better but I just can't seem to control my chakra enough yet. Hinata-chan's been helping me and I'm getting close."

Kurenai crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at her hanyou student's excuse as if to say a mock 'Yeah right' before directing her three genin inside, smiling slightly as Naruto pouted childishly at being ignored before he started talking animatedly with his two teammates. Although she also took notice of the tail that slowly wrapped around Hinata as the two 'secretly dating' couple smiled lovingly at one another.

As the team slowly ascended the long winding stairs of the Hokage Tower, Kurenai took the time to really look at her team. They were a strong team, each possessing skills far above most genin when she was younger. But it wasn't their skills or power that impressed her, it was their compassion for each other as a team. Naruto and Hinata being close was understandable, but for them to open up and welcome the company of an Aburame enough to even bring him out of his shell a bit spoke volumes on their compatibility as a team.

Although she had to wonder if in Naruto's and Hinata's case they were too close, she was happy that they were romantic with one another, but relationships between shinobi were discouraged as their life expectancy was never high and having such close ties to others brought about strong emotions that could cause misjudgement and errors in difficult and dangerous missions that could jepodise the village.

But as she thought about a certain man that was currently occupying her mind she knew she would be a terrible hypocrite if she was to discourage them. And besides, she had been told by Sarutobi about how Naruto's emotions were too easily swayed and Hinata was the best thing to keep him calm and collected.

She was brought out of her musings when her team arrived on the top floor, only to hear a rather obnoxious voice yelling from inside the Hokage's office.

In Sarutobi's Office.

"WHAT? We aren't weak! Sasuke's the head of the Uchiha Clan and me and Akamaru are from the Inuzuka Clan! Come-on Akamaru lets show this old drunk how strong we are!" A loud growl and bark was heard as Kiba and Akamaru prepared to attack their new Client, but were stopped instantly as Kakashi appeared behind them, grabbing them both firmly and preventing their movements.

"You aren't suppose to attack the Client, Kiba." turning to their rather drunken Client of their new C-Rank mission, Kakashi smiled behind his navy blue mask as he apologised for his students headstrong behaviour.

Sasuke just sighed as he watched on in embarrassment of his teammate making a fool of himself and his team, a certain pinkette still clinging to his arm. He hated it when Kiba acted all special because of his clan, he would admit that most Inuzuka are very powerful but it was that sort of pride-filled mindset that caused Sasuke's father and half the Uchiha Clan to plan the take over of Konoha. His mood picked up when a certain blond hanyou virtually broke the office doors off its hinges as he came bursting into the room.

"Hey Dog Breath, keep it down some of us are trying to get missions here. Hey Sasuke-teme, Sakura-san." Naruto greeted equally obnoxiously as Kiba had spoke before, his insult eliciting a growl from the Inuzuka and his canine partner.

"What are you doing here you mangy fox? Shouldn't you be off catching rabbits or something?" Kiba 'barked' back, causing a volley of insults to erupt between the two before their respective sensei's smacked them over their heads for their idiocy. While Hinata apologised to Kiba on Naruto's behalf, she knew that the two would never get along but it was always polite to apologise.

The client of Team 7 looked at Naruto with eyes wide in disbelief and he took a few glances at his sake bottle thinking that he may have drunk a little too much. First he was seeing bratty kids, now he was seeing more bratty kids and one of them was dressed up as some weird fox-human.

"Hey you with the stupid ears and tails, your certainly a weird one, what sort of self respecting kid would dress up like a fox? I thought that your village had a thing against them."

Naruto's eyes widened and his tails thrashed around violently at the insult the random drunk old man had hurled his way. He growled loudly as he brandished his clawed hands. "I'm not dressing up! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou!" Naruto took great pride in what he was despite how much he was despised for it, and it was a immense insult to his pride as a Kitsune Hanyou that this random old fart didn't know what he was.

"A Kitsune- what? Holy the kid can even more those things! That's one weird child, this village is filled with all sorts of strange things. First kids that can apparently keep me safe from bandits now theirs kids with moving clothing." Naruto almost flew into a fit of rage at the further insults of the old man, and Kurenai had to grab him by the scruff of his neck till he calmed down enough to not maim the man.

"Hehe, still a moron it seems Naruto. You never change, that's why they give C-Rank missions to genin like us, cause we aren't as retarded." Sasuke commented offhandedly, hoping to get a reaction out of his best friend.

Naruto's head almost snapped in two as he spun around to face his Uchiha friend, a dark growl was heard as his tails began to thrash around in anger at the insult and at the fact that Sasuke had just gotten a C-Rank mission. And as usual Hinata acted as mediator between the two.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san is j-just trying to t-tease you. You know h-he doesn't mean it." She said while pulling slightly on her boyfriends sleeve, smiling slightly as he calmed down.

Sarutobi just sighed heavily from behind his desk. He knew they were only kids and as such playful fighting was to be expected, but they were ninja after all and as such represented the village and they were currently embarrassing said village and him in from of their new client.

"My apologies for the genin Tazuna-san. They get a little overexcited at times, but do not worry. Team 7 consisting of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka and Jonin Kakashi Hatake will easily be able to ensure your safety as you are escorted back to your country. Team 7, if you are done you are dismissed to pack for your journey." Sarutobi spoke suddenly, still holding a commanding tone despite how tired he was even so early in the morning.

"Alright you three, pack enough for two weeks worth of travel. I'll meet you all at the southern gate." Kakashi instructed his team as he forced them to end their conversations with team 8 and leave the Hokage's office, but he stopped just next to Kurenai to quickly speak with her.

"So how is Naruto's and Hinata's training going? Is Naruto much like his father or mother?"

Kurenai thought it a little odd is personal to ask about the training of two of her students, but even though they were both Jonin, Kakashi far outranked her in ability so it would have been rude of her to ignore his question. "Naruto is progressing well in all aspects apart from chakra control, he possesses far too much chakra to even grip the basics of most normal low-level jutsu and chakra control exercises but he is getting there. Hinata however is the opposite, possessing amazing chakra control she is able to almost perfectly perform the water walking exercise already and has started learning the basics of Genjutsu."

Kakashi was a little taken back that Kurenai was already training her students in chakra controlling exercises but decided not to say anything as they weren't his students. He believed a cohesive team was better and so had been performing almost nothing but team building exercises before trying to teach them anything jutsu or technique related.

Nodding his head goodbye he dismissed himself before disappearing in a burst of smoke, leaving the Client Tazuna to find his own way to the southern gate.

As soon as team 7 was gone Naruto virtually appeared at Sarutobi's desk, pleading and begging for a C-Rank mission like Sasuke had got.

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun but I can only give you a higher ranked mission if your sensei believes you can handl-" Naruto didn't even give Sarutobi a chance to finish his sentence before he was at Kurenai's feet, begging her to allow them to get a mission that wasn't 'a boring waste of time'. Kurenai's response was to just smirk at his pathetic attempt, especially when he transformed into a baby fox with abnormally big eyes. Something that had no effect on Kurenai but made Hinata almost melt at his cuteness.

"Nice try Naruto-kun, I believe you three would be fine doing a C-Rank but it's not just up to you and me. Shino-kun and Hinata-chan must also say whether they feel they are ready for a higher level mission." Kurenai explained as she turned away from the begging baby fox at her feet and towards Hinata, expecting her to answer.

Hinata hated being put on the spot, especially in a group of people. But she knew how much her hanyou boyfriend wanted a better mission and she herself had to admit the D-Rank missions were more chores then mission. They were good to help bring the team together but that was something they had down pat.

"I-I think a higher level m-mission will be good for u-us Kurenai-sensei. It will g-give us a chance t-to improve more a-as well as s-see any weaknesses we have t-that we couldn't spot in the D-Rank missions." Hinata responded, pushing her fingers together in nervousness. Although that nervousness quickly turned to embarrassment as she felt a small fox nuzzle her leg affectionately at her comment, obviously happy she agreed.

"I agree with Hinata-san, she is correct saying that a higher level mission will be a good measure of our strengths as a team. Plus with the Chunin exams approaching it might be worth while if we got more experience if we were to enter." Kurenai expected Shino to agree as he was an Aburame after all and they valued logic above all else, she could only assume that he figured it truly was the best choice. Although she was a little concerned on why he was thinking so far ahead as to take the Chunin Advancement Exams into consideration.

"Well if you three all think that you would be fine that I am also in agreeance." She said with a smile before turning to the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, I would like to request that Team 8 is to be given a C-Rank mission." Sarutobi just laughed at Kurenai's insistent formality and at Naruto doing little backflips as he yipped all over the place in excitement.

"I was hoping you would ask for a C-Rank for your team soon Kurenai-chan. It just so happens that I have a mission perfect for your team." He said while pulling out a small document wallet and handing it to Kurenai.

"The mission is to track down a small band of bandits have stolen a sacred relic from the neighbouring town Kuzaku and retrieve it. The bandits are small in number and very disorganised and as such they won't be a trouble if you need to… 'deal' with them to save obtain it from them. Our scouts have reported that no enemy or renegade ninja are among them, but if by chance you do come across any you must return immediately and let a more experience team handle it as it will become above a C-Rank in such an instance. The documents I handed you will contain more in depth details as well as the name of the Lord of Kuzaku. He was the one who requested the mission and is thus the contact and client." As he finished his explanation Sarutobi picked up his pre-lit pipe and took three long breaths of the calming burning tobacco. He chucked when Naruto almost passed out from the horrible smell virtually killing his oversensitive nose.

"The mission will be completed with upmost hast and perfection Hokage-sama. Naruto, Hinata, Shino, pack and prepare for a minimum of two weeks we will leave from the Northen Gate in three hours. And Naruto, you are not allowed to bring any Ramen cups. It is unhealthy for a growing young man to consume so much of an unhealthy food." A dark growl was the only response she got, a growl that didn't cease even as Naruto slowly transformed back to his usual form.

The growl suddenly disappeared as Hinata tugged slightly on his shirt. "Come on N-Naruto-kun. We need to go p-pack, goodbye Kurenai-sensei, Hokage-sama, Shino-san." Sarutobi smiled as he watched the two young teens slowly leave his office, he could see the peace and happiness they brought each other as easily as he could see the wrinkles on his aged face. It brought him a sense of peace knowing his favourite blond loudmouth was slowly experiencing true happiness and peace in his life for once. Plus he knew that Hinata's confidence would only improve more as their new relationship grew.

He would however have to have a word with the Hyuga Clan to ensure that they are allowed to remain together as long as they wish. It wasn't usually his duty to get involved in clan affairs but he could certainly pull a few strings in this case.

"Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan. I want you bought to pack a sleeping bag each. I will be checking before we leave." Both Naruto and Hinata paused at the door and looked back at their sensei in confusion at what she meant. But as their minds slowly figured it out, both of their faces lit up in complete embarrassment at what she was hinting at. And in Hinata's case she fainted almost instantly. Oh yes, Kurenai was going to have a lot of fun in this mission.

"KURENAI-SENSEI! Of course we will bring two sleeping bags!" The two adults both burst out in laughter at Naruto and Hinata's reaction at the slightly cruel joke and even Shino gave a small chuckle at his teammate's expense as Naruto left the office growling darkly while carrying his unconscious girlfriend in his arms.

"I will excuse myself as well sensei. I need to inform my family immediately of the extended length mission. I will met at the Northern Gate at the allotted time." Kurenai watched Shino leave and had to wonder slightly on what he was thinking. She knew that he was slowly getting more comfortable as part of Team 8 but she couldn't quite tell or not if he was fully comfortable with his teammates new relationship as he might be feeling like a third wheel a lot now.

As her last student left Kurenai bowed low to the Hokage before leaving also, but not before Sarutobi gave her a final warning.

"Be careful Kurenai-chan, keep your team safe especially Hinata. There is no need to remind you of the dangers it presents now that her and Naruto are closer now. Naruto sees you and Shino as his closest friends and you in particular remind him much of Hitomi Hyuga. But out of everyone Hinata is the most important thing in the world to him, please, keep her safe. I do not disapprove of their relationship as it will be far more beneficial for them both then you or I know, they strengthen each other's body and mind more so then the harshest of training." Kurenai wasn't the best at reading peoples emotions, especially the Hokage's, but even she could easily see the worry etched in his aged face.

"Don't worry Hokage-sama, Naruto, Hinata and Shino are strong they can defend themselves easily against any bandit. And I am a Jonin after all. They will all return safely." She said with another bow, before disappearing from the office in a swirl of leaves, she remained only long enough to her leaders final words.

"I hope your right Kurenai-chan, Naruto is slowly gaining more and more control over the Yokai his body naturally produces and is starting to use it instead of his normal human chakra in everyday use… his emotions must remain calm at all times lest he start drawing on the Yokai chakra of the fox."

About a day's travel from Konoha three dark cloaked figures emerged from the dark underbush of Kuzaku Forest. They studied each other carefully, watching the other's each and every movements for any sign of an attack or jutsu. They were called here for a common goal but that didn't mean that they would work with each other easily, or on friendly terms.

After about a minute of staring each other down they all turned to watch a newcomer approach them. The newcomer was not dressed in the same cloaked fashion but still wore dark coloured cloths to help hid is appearance.

"Are you the three that I requested for the 'Sikato'?" The three figures all shared a look, obviously recognising the codeword that was used. Eventually it was the shorter one on the left of the three that responded.

"Yes it is us. Our services aren't cheap but we are assuming you have the initial amount?" Without a word the newcomer threw each of the figures a small pouch and upon examining the pouches contents all three of them gave their new benefactor and wickedly evil grin.

"Our services are at your disposal, are you sure that you wish us to go through with the arranged plan? It is rather… 'evil'."

For a second the three figures almost laughed at the petrified look that passed over there benefactor's face. He was a mere child to them and it seemed that he hadn't fully thought through that he was hiring them for assassination. But that look only remained for a mere second, as quickly as it had appeared it was replaced by a face that put their thoughts at rest. It was a look of pure hatred and rage, of pain that had completely corrupted him and was driving him closer and closer towards insanity, it was twisted in a sense that looked completely out of place on the young mans face.

"Yes… Yes… YES! KILL THEM ALL! I WANT ALL OF THEM SLAUGHTERED FOR WHAT THEY DID!" The three cloaked man shared a dark chuckle, clearly pleased by the response before disappearing once again within the shadowed underbush.


	27. Chapter 26: The village of monks

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Chapter 26 – The village of monks

"ARGH! Why can't I just get it to work! Kurenai-sensei what am I doing wrong?" Kurenai and the rest of Team 8 just sighed at Naruto's rather obnoxious sounding whine. They had only just left the village barely an hour ago and Naruto was already driving them all mad. Well, except for Hinata who had grown use to Naruto's loud volumes over the years and just giggled at his sudden outburst.

Deciding it was best to at least attempt to keep her hanyou student calm if only to keep him quite Kurenai left her place at the rear of the team and stood next to him to observe his progress.

"Well? What is it that seems to be the problem?" Kurenai asked gently, her gaze shifting to the small square shaped blue-green crystal that Hinata held near Naruto.

"I just can't seem to concentrate my chakra without setting that stupid thing off! I swear I'm using almost no chakra and it still picks it up!" Naruto's tails flicked in irritation as he pointed towards the small crystal Hinata held. Before even giving his sensei a chance to respond he held his hands together in the handsign of the Ram, focusing the chakra within him. Within seconds the chakra crystal Hinata held started to glow a brilliant blue almost blinding both him and Hinata with its intense rays of light, which then suddenly a raging red as Naruto growled in frustration as he stopped focusing.

"See! The stupid thing picks up even the smallest amount! How is this supposed to help me sensei!" Kurenai just laughed slightly as her frustrated student glared daggers at the small crystal, she knew that he would ever not make it glow, as it was made specifically for Genjutsu Masters.

It was a strong chakra crystal designed to detect even the most subtle of charka pulses and was used by her family to help learn perfect chakra control. The trainee would simply focus their chakra nearby the crystal and try to get their chakra flowing evening while getting the crystal to dim as much as possible. It was a very high level training and only the very best Genjutsu and Medical Ninjutsu specialists ever manage to fully stop the crystal from glowing.

"You are missing the point Naruto-kun. The idea is to teach you good chakra control, you have to focus your charka so that the crystal dims as much as possible. The dimmer the crystal's glow means the less your chakra can be sensed which means that not only will you have better chakra control but you will be harder to sense by enemy ninja." Kurenai explained calmly, still smiling brightly as Naruto's tails thrashed around in frustration. She could easily see that he was getting annoyed at his inability to perform the training, but she could also see that he was paying _very _close attention to her words.

'_You remind him of Hitomi Hyuga, Kurenai-chan. It may seem quite hard to keep his attention but he __**does**__ listen. Even if it pains him and reminds him of her he will grow to listen to you.' _

Sarutobi's early words in her training of Team 8 echoed in her mind. At first she found Naruto wild and difficult to teach. But after only a week and a bit he, Hinata and Shino were really looking up to her, listening to her every word and drinking in her knowledge. It made her feel quite… special and proud as their teacher. A pride she knew would only grow as they did.

"Really? I don't actually have to make the stupid thing stop glowing but just dim it? Alright!" Almost immediately Naruto's sour mood instantly brightened and Kurenai sighed at her students bipolar actions.

"W-Wait Naruto-kun. You have to calm d-down to focus y-your chakra properly… You h-have a lot of y-yokai chakra because you w-were angry before…" Hinata whispered softly next to her hanyou boyfriend, her Byakugan eyes blazing brightly as she returned the sweet smile he gave her. She liked the effect she always had on him, a small gesture or kind words and he would instantly be as calm as a house cat.

'_Or a house kitsune in his case.' _She thought to herself with a small giggle.

"She is right Naruto-san. My Kikai are buzzing with anxiety, they find your chakra overpowering. Which is strange considering chakra is what they eat." Shino had been feeling a little uncomfortable around Naruto ever since their sensei gave him that crystal to help train with. Mainly because his insect companions always got frantic and upset when they felt his strength of Naruto's chakra and their emotions always messed with his own.

Nodding to his teammates and wrapping a tail around Hinata affectionately, causing her to go bright red at his actions, Naruto returned to focusing his chakra while the whole team continued walking to their destination. This time Naruto tried to remain calm and collected as he failed once again, the crystal almost blinding them all with its intense light.

"Don't worry N-Naruto-kun. I'm certain you w-will get better at it soon." Hinata encouraged as she shyly held the tail that had wrapped around her. She still wasn't sure how she should act with Naruto around her team. But Kurenai had said that she didn't mind their relationship as long as it didn't interfere with their training, and Shino… well Shino wasn't bothered by anything.

Kurenai smiled as she watched her two loverbird students. She knew it was dangerous to be in any sort of relationship with fellow shinobi as the enemy could use one against the other. But she felt it the best thing for those two as she could tell since she first saw them at the academy that they needed each other to grow, both as young adults and as shinobi. She also took note of the fact that Hinata wasn't causing the crystal to react by having her Byakugan eyes active.

'_It's not possible is it? She couldn't have such a level of chakra control at her age! Even with the training I'm sure the Hyuga clan made her go through there is no way her control could be that good… could it?' _Despite her amazement and peaking curiosity her attention was averted when Shino suddenly stood beside her, asking for mission details.

"So Kurenai-sensei, what do you know about Kuzaku Town? More specifically what do you know about this object we are suppose to retrieve from the bandits that attacked? It is always best to know as much as possible about any mission."

Kurenai nodded her head to acknowledge his question and smiled at his forethought. Out of her three students Shino was by far the most level-headed and was probably more of a leader type then Naruto or Hinata despite his silent personality.

"Kuzaku Town is not a major tourist attraction and doesn't have any militia force like the Hidden Leaf Village does. It is actually a town surrounding a large monastery. The monks living there are peaceful people and the town holds little monetary value so it is very very rare to get attacked. Which makes me wonder why they did attack and what makes this relic they stole so valuable." Shino nodded slowly at his sensei's explanation, he too thought it odd for bandits to attack a peaceful monastery. And to steal nothing but a single object means they had information about said object and were after it for a specific reason.

"Regardless of the reason I believe this mission will be an easy one for us. Bandits usually have no taijutsu training and even less have basic ninjutsu knowledge, they are usually just a ragtag bunch of thieves looking for a easy quick money making raid." Kurenai was usually quite calm and collected voice cracked for a second. A rather odd show of uncontrolled emotion that caught her teams ears when she seem to spit that last part of her sentence. Leaving the rest of Team 8 to wonder what had effected their sensei to make her upset even in the slightest way.

Naruto had been eavesdropping on any conversation his teammates had with their sensei, it was probably a really bad habit but in his case it was sort of unavoidable. His sensitive ears twitched slightly at his sensei's tone, something he would have to remember for later.

"Don't ask h-her about it N-Naruto-kun. I could t-tell that whatever Kurenai-sensei was t-thinking of brought her a lot of p-pain. If s-she wants to tell u-us she will." Naruto was quite shocked at having been caught eavesdropping but was equally confused on how his girlfriend knew what their sensei was talking about. That is until he noticed her Byakugan eyes were still active, a small pale blush on her delicate face as she tried to hide her shame at eavesdropping too by fiddling with her fingers. Except in her case she was just reading their lip movements.

Hinata just blushed brighter when she heard Naruto burst out in laughter, she herself had to question whether or not she was adopting more of Naruto's habits as the years went on. But seeing his happy face as he laughed mirthfully she didn't really care as she joined in on his contagious laughter. Utterly confusing both their teammate and sensei as to what was so funny.

'_Hmm… I'm starting to see what Anko was talking about when she said they were an odd pair.' _Kurenai thought with a smile. Before returning to her conversation with Shino, she could tell that his clan's famed logic might come in great use in helping to formulate any plans of attack.

It was late into the afternoon before they finally arrived at there intended destination. Which was not soon enough for Team 8 who had been slowly growing irritable from both the travel and from the constant pulses of chakra Naruto kept emitting while practicing his chakra control exercise. Something he hadn't progressed on at all.

Climbing the last hill, Naruto and Hinata both smiled brightly at the sight they saw, a smile that was closely followed by Shino's and Kurenai's.

"I-It's so beautiful. Just l-like from the old s-story books." Hinata and Naruto both stared at the sight before them with little stars in their eyes, both enjoying the beauty before them.

Kurenai just laughed at her student antics before admiring the sight as well. She herself had visited Kuzaku Town twice before, both on missions of course, and each time she found herself in awe of its magnificence. Even Shino, who didn't display any outwards signs of appreciating the view, was enjoying it if the buzz of his beetle companions were any give away.

Before them was a small but rather lively village, brightly coloured with various lanterns lighting up the streets as people hurried about their business in the late afternoon. Various children ran around the streets playing happily as their parents spoke amongst themselves. The village was beautiful having the most diverse array of colours it just held a happy atmosphere. Similar to when grand festival is held, their just seemed to be an excitable feel about the place, an excitement that was making Naruto giddy in anticipation.

But it wasn't the beautiful town that held their gaze and caused them such wonder, it was the humongous temple that towered behind the village. It was massive, easily over bigger then any single building in the Leaf Village and far taller then even the Hokage's Tower. The Temple consisted of a main dome with three hugs circular spires reaching upwards from its centre and two side points. The whole temple was surrounded by a huge wall, easily over 5 meters high, with highly decorative scenes of battle and celebrations carved into them. The only reason they could see over the wall was because the village and the temple were at the bottom of the mountain, nestled in the valley. Although the temple was still far higher up then the village, having at least 200 steps from the back of the village to the front door of the temple.

"Welcome to Kuzaku Village, this will be were we will be staying until the mission is complete. Our first priority is to talk with the head monk, he will brief us further on the mission as well as provide us with accommodations. Come on you three, we shall walk from here."

Following there sensei's lead, the young genin followed in single file behind her, all of them quite eager to experience for the first time an actual mission and another village. Although Naruto wasn't too keen on the idea, he was worried. In all of Konoha there is only a very few amount of people that ever looked at him with some sort of compassion. And he feared that even here he might get the same sort of treatment, or perhaps even worse.

Hinata seemed to sense her hanyou boyfriends concern, and easily noticed the short stiff movements his body made as he walked in front of her. "Naruto-kun? Are you o-ok?" Hear words seemed to make him jump slightly, almost like he was concentrating so hard she had scared him. But in an instant he returned to normal before looking behind him lovingly, a happy smile appearing on his face as he wrapped a tail around Hinata's hand.

"Yeah I'm ok… just a little worried about what they will think of me that's all." Naruto tried to give his most convincing of foxy smiles, but he knew that Hinata could see straight through his act even without her Byakugan. He wasn't scared, but he always feared what the villagers thought of him, and the possibility that this one might treat him the same was a dark thought that always seemed to eat away at his mind.

Kurenai watched carefully Naruto's face and particularly his eyes as he spoke to Hinata, she wasn't eavesdropping as such but more making sure that her team was in the best shape, and if Naruto's mind was distracted by fear then he wouldn't be at his best.

Apart from that, a small part of her could feel his pain, even if only for a moment she could feel and almost relieve the pain of the harsh memories that always threatened to engulf his mind. She could only shudder at the sadness that surrounded him at that moment, but she also could see just how much Hinata helped Naruto stay sane. _'Those two really perfect for one another… I just hope the ninja life doesn't tear one of them away from the other or I don't ever think they will recover.'_

"Naruto-kun, you don't need to worry about the people of this village, they are all quite traditionalist so they might not judge you for what you are. But even if they do I won't let anything happen to you, you are apart of this team and I cannot have anything threatening my students." Kurenai's voice was firm and commanding and sounded almost like an order, but it seemed to have a sort of softness to it. A softness that once again caused Naruto to remember his mother and he found himself staring back at his sensei, but unlike all the times before where he would reject her command he nodded slightly with a smile.

Kurenai knew that she didn't need to say anything to him as Hinata would easily keep him calm, but she felt that he needed a different type of reassurance. And judging by his actions this time it was something that he took to heart.

'_He watches you Kurenai-chan, as well as everyone around him. You won't ever be able to influence him like say young Hinata Hyuga does, but he does listen. As his sensei and especially as someone who doesn't think any ill of him he looks to you for guidance just as he would his surrogate family. But he also needs your compassion.'_

Kurenai just smiled back at her three students behind her before turning back and continuing to walk down the mountain side. It wouldn't be long before it was night, and she and her team needed to rest before they continued the mission.

Team 8 slowly walked through the open archways of the village entrance and immediately began to feel the excited sounds of festivity. They didn't know weather some sort of celebration was happening or if this was just regular life in the town, all that they knew was that the welcoming and fun atmosphere made them all feel more at ease. Especially Naruto, who's ears were twitching furiously both from the festive sounds and for scanning for any threats. Hinata had tried to keep him calm but it seemed that the closer they got to the town the worse and more nervous he got.

As they entered, two guards in rather heavy looking leather and plate armour stepped quickly infront of the team, there spears crossing to block the path. They looked rather standard for guards, their only interesting feature being their completely bald heads.

"Halt! One woman and a bunch of snot nosed kids at this hour of the afternoon? I'll need some form of identification before we can let you pass." The sudden appearance of the guards and there weaponry made Naruto jump nervously and growl loudly, a tail moving infront of Hinata autonomously. His claws hands moving infront of him protectively, actions that caught the guards attention and caused them to step closer to the hanyou.

"Naruto calm down. I don't have to put a leash around you do I?" Kurenai asked rhetorically with a stern voice, smiling in satisfaction when Naruto lowered his head slightly in submission. The idea of being leashed sounding rather upsetting. "Please forgive him, he gets a little 'excited' easily but he means no harm. I have the identification paper here."

Reaching into her clothe battle dress Kurenai withdrew a small envelope containing their papers. Handing them to the guard on the left he quickly read over them, his eyes opening wide as he finished and quickly handed them back. "O-Oh my deepest apologies ma'am! I-I had no idea you were the team from the Leaf Village-" The guards quickly pulled back their weapons and the left guard beckoned over one of the other guards from his post. "-This is the Leaf Village team, take them to Kiharu-sama as he is expecting them." The guard quickly nodded to his superior before bowing to Team 8, beckoning them to follow him. The other guards also bowing very low as the team past them and entered the village.

The genin of Team 8 were a little shocked at the respect they were getting, almost everyone they past would step back slightly and bow low. It was… odd to receive such a greeting from anyone, especially a village they hadn't ever been to. It seemed that everyone was stopping their festivities and clearing a path for the team through the village, all of them bowing as they past.

Shino and Naruto in particular were a little unnerved by such actions. Hinata was use to this show of respect, being the Hyuga heiress she was practically the closest thing to royalty in Konoha. Shino however was an Aburame and despite being one of the strongest clans in Konoha they were always avoided because of their beetle companions.

And Naruto… well Naruto was just use to hateful glares and curses. So to receive such respect from complete strangers was more then a little odd. Plus it was stranger still to see the looks they would all give him as he past them. They all look at him in confusion and question, almost like they weren't sure about something about him. This confusion only increase when he would move his tails or ears, causing shock and mumour through the crowds. But instead of worrying him it made him smile, he could easily hear what they were saying: no one knew about him so they didn't know what he was.

Naruto was so focused on listening to the villagers of this town, that he failed to notice a small girl probably only 3 years old, walk through the crowd on the left side and up to him. That was until his ears focused away from the villagers and heard her tiny footsteps next to him. But as he turned around one of his tails knocked her head slightly, pushing her to the ground.

Kurenai stopped instantly as she saw the young girl fall down, but before even she could think of helping the young child up she found herself smiling as Naruto immediately jumped to help.

Naruto was horrified that he knocked the little girl down, and felt terrible when he saw little tears forming on her face. Leaning down to the little girl, he gently wrapped two tails around her, lifting her into the air much to her surprise, causing her tears to stop almost instantly. Noting that she had slightly scrapped her little hands when she fell, Naruto gave each hand a little lick, causing the girl to giggle cutely at the tickling feel not even realising that her little scratches were healing.

"Hehe, I'm sorry, I didn't see you. I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou. What's your name?" Naruto asked excitably, intent on cheering the little girl up.

"My name's Kikyo! You fox Naruto?" Naruto smiled brightly as she reached up to his twitching fox ears. To which he just raised her higher so she could grab them, still smiling brightly at holding her. It had been so long since he had been allowed to touch someone's child. The last one was the children of the Branch family of the Hyuga clan, and children in that clan especially the Branch were a rarity.

"Yes, I'm a fox. A special fox called a Kitsune." Naruto said happily as he shuddered slightly from the little girl pulling his ears. He wasn't a full Kitsune but he knew explaining it to her would have just been confusing.

When she had finished playing with his ears and the whisker like marks on his face, he gently gave her a quick hug before asking where her mother was. As she pointed out her mother in the crowd Kurenai gave a small smirk as she watched her genin walk over to hand the young girl back to her mother, happily receiving a thank you and a pat on the head from the woman.

Taking this a perfect opportunity to stir her only female student she leant down to Hinata's ear while taking note of the lovestruck expression on her face.

"Looks like you have chosen well Hinata-chan, he looks like he will make a fine father." Kurenai just laughed heartily as she watched her student turn bright red before stammering out for her to not say such things. "Alright I won't. But you have to admit that you liked to see him so good with little kids."

Hinata just chose to bury her face in her hands instead of respond. She liked her sensei a lot both because of her stature as a top kunoichi of Konoha and also because of her stern but fair training methods. But it was times like this when her sensei purposely embarrassed her that she just wanted to hide.

Although as much as she wanted to hide, she had to admit that she was really star struck for a moment there seeing how well he played with the little girl. And for another moment she was picturing a possible future where that little girl was there own, just with fox ears and a single tail, with bright lavender eyes.

Hinata had to physically restrain herself from passing out at the wonderful thought, and just continued to try and hide her embarrassment by pulling her hood over her head.

Even after returning the young girl Kikyo back to her mother several times, each time Naruto tried to walk back through the crowd to his team somehow she had escaped her mother's hold would follow Naruto back, grabbing hold of his tails when she could.

He was happy that she liked him, but judging by the looks Kurenai was giving him he could tell that his sensei would preferred if he hurried up as they had resumed walking through the village to the steps of the monastery.

'_Remember Naruto, a ninja must use any available tool, opportunity, or ability to trick or distract their opponent. A distracted opponent will give you an opening to attack and deal with them, or an opportunity to escape if you need to get away. This is a good skill to have and practice in real life as it can help you out of many different situations.'_

Naruto mulled over the first lesson Kurenai had taught the team when she started explaining genjutsu to them. He didn't really want to use trickery to get away from the young girl, but he really did need to catch up with his team. "I have to go now Kikyo-chan, I have to go with my team. I'll come visit later to play ok?" Before even giving the little girl a chance to nod in understanding Naruto focused a small amount of Yokai chakra, before literally phasing away from existence as his body seemed to blow away like a breeze. But in his place three small kitsune kits ran around Kikyo, causing her to giggle in delight before chasing after them. Not knowing they weren't real or that they were leading her back to her mother.

The crowd was quite amazed by his small demonstration of ability, and some of them clapped in excitement. It was only a small cheer, but to hear praise from other people, strangers, caused a warm feeling in his heart. _'It's different the way they look at me, none of them fear me or hate me… I like this village.'_

Quickly using the cover of his illusion he dashed to catch up to his team who had started walking up the stairs to the monastery. Although Naruto was a little surprised when he saw Shino watching his approach, almost like he could somehow see where he was despite the illusion. It was something he would have to talk with his quiet teammate about later.

A rather exhausted guard slowly bowed and directed Team 8 to the temple. Having climbed over 200 stairs leading the group he wasn't use to such exercise and was breathing quite heavily. Something Team 8 found quite amusing considering none of them were even slightly tired. And Naruto could run laps up and down those stairs for a morning jog with his energy levels.

'_Hmm… That is perhaps something I could try to see if I can settle him down during training. A few laps around Konoha with Guy and his little mini-me perhaps?'_ Although the thought was an interesting one considering Kurenai had been trying to tire out Naruto for training so he wasn't so hyperactive. But the horrifying idea that Naruto could be turned into another Guy mini-me was to horrible a thought and so she ditched the idea completely.

Walking ahead of her team Kurenai slowly entered the monastery, walking slow enough so that her students could awe at the amazing construction. The entrance was a huge stone archway similar to the one at the Konoha Academy but the grounds inside were much different. Inside was a massive hedge garden filled with similar flowers to the countryside ones they had seen on arriving. And what they assumed was a single building when they looked from the cliff side, was in fact two smaller temples attached to a large open hall.

Everywhere they looked there was various monuments and plaques, each of them depicting a scene or battle. Some of them were engraved with long mantras in a language that none of them knew. Most of the plaques however, were carved into the walls and ceilings of the monastery, giving a surprising amount of life to a expectantly boring and dull place.

Kurenai smiled as she saw her students captivated by the place and they each seemed interested in different aspects of it. Shino seemed to be really interested in the construction of the place as well as the various monuments and plagues of mantras. While Hinata seemed completely captivated from the beautiful garden. And Naruto… well Naruto was running through the whole place far to excited for normal behaviour.

She watched him freeze however when he came to one particular battlescene, one she was worried on how he would react.

Naruto had been running about like he usually would, examining and identifying anything he could. It was both his nature and his natural instinct to explore his surroundings, something he knew his sensei would lecture him about any minute now. As he sped around the inside building as he entered a certain battlescene carved into the walls caught his eye and he immediately stopped in shock. Standing up with wide eyes he slowly walked over to it, his heart racing as he could feel himself chock up a little, his ears no longer paying attention to his sensei's call.

The carved scene depicted a battle he had read a lot about, but seeing like it this, and seeing the destruction that was shown, caused his body to tighten in conflicting emotions. There before him was a carving of the Nine Tailed Fox destroying Konoha.

He could feel a slight rage built up as he stared at it, the Fox's nine flowing tails crushing his home, while roaring viciously as it was crushing a random ninja beneath its giant paws. As he studying it he could see that great detail was put into the faces of the villagers of the Leaf Village, faces of horror, fright and of hatred towards the attacker of their home, hatred he knew they all directed at him. Looking down at his clawed hands, flexing them slightly he placed one knew the paw of the Fox, knowing that it was the reason he was what he was, and the reason he was hated.

His rage only grew as he heard a deep growl in the back of his mind, followed by a deep mocking laughter almost like the Fox found it amusing that he was effected by such a depiction of the battle. _'If that's you you stupid fox then shut up! You are the reason for everything I suffer! It's all your fault I am this!' _Partly blinded by his hatred and rage at the Fox, he lashed out in anger, aiming to claw the depiction of the Fox's head right off the stone wall. But his hand never collided, and he was shocked to feel a gentle hand holding his wrist.

Turning suddenly in fright, having not even heard his approach Naruto was confused to find an aged man smiling at him. Although Naruto knew smiles quite well, and could tell that this old man was somehow sad for him, almost like he could feel his pain. But what confused Naruto the most was that the man had so easily stopped him from striking that stone carving, something that most ninja didn't have the strength to stop let alone completely halt with a gentle grasp.

"I sense so much rage in you young man, so much buried hate and anguish for something out of your control and that was not your fault." Naruto lowered his hand in response and the aged man released his wrist, before he started to study him.

Naruto never liked people looking at him oddly, but this man's interest seemed different. Naruto attempted to speak and explain but almost instantly as he did the man quickly placed a hand on Naruto's head, a calming sensation passing through him almost like his anger at the Fox was suddenly put to ease.

"You must remain calm young man. Or young hanyou would be more appropriate yes?" Seeing Naruto's eyes widen in shock the man smiled slightly, his aged face wrinkling as he did.

"You mustn't worry, I know what you are and how it happened. You were a victim of circumstance and it turned out to be your biggest curse, and yet your biggest gift." The man pointed slowly to each physical aspect of Naruto that was influenced by him being a Kitsune Hanyou, going from the claws, to the tails and ears, then to his heart.

"You have been cursed with a hatred, yet gifted with strength, mobility, agility, hearing, ability-" on the last he slowly pointed to the rest of Team 8 who were being spoken to by a few monks of the temple, in particularly he was pointing to Hinata.

"-and gifted with love. You needn't fear or hate what's inside you, but learn to accept it and live with it. I sense you have great pride in what you are, but I also sense a great deal of buried and hidden resentment. I suggest you deal with it before it eventually consumes you, or worse, the one you love."

Naruto was completely taken off guard by this strange old bald man's words. But they rang so true it almost hurt. But there was also something about what he said that made a great deal of sense, he may have been cursed to be hated… but at the same time he had been given so much. _'And maybe… if it wasn't for the Fox I wouldn't have ever met Hinata-chan…' _Naruto's usual smile returned and he bowed low to the aged man, something he rarely ever did to anyone.

"Your welcome young man, now come, I believe you and your team have a mission to discuss with me yes?" Naruto hadn't known how quickly this man had so easily read him, but with that sentence Naruto understood who he was, he was the head monk of the monastery and their employer.

"Yes sir." Naruto said, completely out of character of him when adding respect, especially when he bowed again before he quickly dashed off to his team. The man had so easily read him and he accepted him even before knowing him, something that gained him a lot of respect from the hanyou.

About 20 mins later Team 8 were seated before a great statue of the moon, apparently a tribute to Tsukuyomi the Moon God, as the old monk now identified as Kiharu the Head Monk spoke at length about the mission with them. Shino, Hinata and Kurenai were focused on his explanations but Naruto was for something different distracted. Although it was from the scent he could smell that was keeping his attention… it was strong and musky, aged and sweaty and for some reason it just seemed to smell of hatred and rage. If hatred and rage could actually be given a smell that is.

Almost like Kiharu had sensed Naruto's distraction he called to the boy he knew was there and keeping the hanyou's attention. "Daisuke-kun, please do not hide. Come out and greet our guests." Kiharu's voice had lost its soft and peaceful monk sound, and gained more of a stern fatherly tone. One used to reprimand a child who is misbehaving.

Naruto and Team 8 followed the direction Kiharu had called, and a few moments later a rather gaunt small boy proably around the age of 10-12. He was dressed in the same white robes that all the other monks wore but for some strange reason he didn't have a shaved head, instead having a bowl cut of brown hair just low enough to cover the top of his eyes.

He walked towards the group rather slowly, his gaze focused on the floor and so they couldn't see his eyes. But they could feel his rage, particularly Kurenai who could tell that the boy was dealing with some sort of loss and still hadn't dealt with it.

When he was within a few meters of Kiharu he bowed slightly before sitting next to his superior, his gaze still looking at the ground, his hands shaking slightly from his evident rage. Kiharu seemed unfazed by the boy's current turmoil but it was unnerving to Team 8.

"There we are. Now as I was saying the relic was stolen by the bandits and taken in the northeast direction. They have a camp not even half a days travel from here but they have never posed a threat to us so therefore we have ignored them. Up until now that is, as the relic they stole has great value both monetary and spiritually as it belonged to the first Lord of the Land of Fire and was given to us to safeguard. Daisuke-kun here and his mother were the two selected guardians of it.-" Team 8 noted that Daisuke instantly jerked a little at hearing him and his mother mentioned, something that seemed to make him more and more angry.

"She was quite the fighter Lady Kia, she was strong, agile and cunning. And she was more at one with herself then any other monk of her generation. She was a perfect guardian, but sadly during the raid when the bandits came to steal the relic, Lady Kia fought them and stopped many of them from taking anything else of value, but when she was fighting to defend the relic she was forced to defend one of the other monks of the temple and was killed." Kiharu's voice changed once more, adopting a more solemn tone to it, like he truly felt for Lady Kia's death.

"She will be missed dearly, but I don't believe in letting her sacrifice left in vain. With your teams help Kurenai-san, I believe that we could easily retrieve the relic and return it safely back here. We need most of the monks here to defend encase of another attack, but I can send some along with you if you need their assistance."

Daisuke however obviously didn't share Kiharu's solemn feelings, and as soon as he had finished talking he exploded. "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT! MY MOTHER WAS MORE THEN JUST A WORTHLESS GUARDIAN THAT CAN BE REPLACED! SHE DEFENDED THIS PLACE WITH HER LIFE AND ALL YOU CARE OF IS WHETHER OR NOT WE GET THAT STUPID PIECE OF JUNK BACK! WAS MY MOTHER THAT WORTHLESS TO YOU? THAT A SIMPLE ORNAMENT IS MORE IMPORTANT THEN HER LIFE!" Before anyone could react Daisuke stormed off in a rage, running from the main temple and out of sight before Kiharu could say anything in response. "I HATE YOU KIHARU AND EVERYONE HERE! I WISH YOU ALL WERE DEAD! AND THAT MOTHER WAS STILL ALIVE!" The raging voice of Daisuke could be heard echoing loudly throughout the entire monastery. The mixture of rage and deep hurt could be felt within each and every one of his words. But it was more what he had said that really hit home for Naruto and Hinata.

As they could easily empathise with his pain. As they too, had lost their mother. Plus, they could see the rage and lust for revenge written deep within his bloodshot eyes as he had shouted. They weren't sure what the boy was capable of, but he certainly looked like he wasn't too stable. And from his words, they both found themselves holding their chests tightly, the sad memories of their own mother filtering into their minds. Bringing up old pains they found themselves unconsciously moving closer to each other for comfort.

"Please excuse my pupil, he is not dealing well with his mother's death and just assumes that we don't care about what happen to Lady Kia… But believe me when I say, that to some of use, Lady Kia was like a daughter." Kiharu bowed his head slightly and Team 8 could have sworn they saw a single tear fall from his eyes, he himself obviously being the reference to the some who thought of her as a daughter.

"But please excuse my lack of hospitality, let me show you to your accommodations for the remainder of your mission. Dinner has already been prepared for your arrival." In an instant all sign of sad emotion left the aged monk and he stood slowly before slowly walking to the entrance of the monastery. Beckoning Team 8 to follow him.

"AH! That hit the spot! That was delicious! Although too bad it wasn't ramen, I could really go for some ramen." Naruto proclaimed loudly as the team entered their shared quarters in the town's inn, before quickly running and jumping on one of the beds spreading out and loudly claiming it as his.

"How could you possibly want more food Naruto-san? You ate more then all of us combined. How is it possible for you to eat so much?" Naruto jumped up and sat on his bed in a single flip motion looking at Shino with a big sheepish grin.

"Hehe I don't know, I guess I'm just always hungry for some reason. Aren't I Hinata-chan? I just never stop eating huh?" Naruto asked in his usual upbeat tone, bounding over to her as he noticed she was unpacking her bag.

Hinata just giggled slightly as she felt Naruto's tail hug her close as he started helping her unpack and she went bright red from embarrassment as he suddenly gave her an affectionate lick on the cheek, making it hard for her to answer his question.

"Y-Y-Yes that's r-right. N-Naruto-kun e-eat so much t-that the cooks b-back at home use h-him to try out there l-latest recipes. And y-you should s-see him when he goes t-to Ichiraku Ramen. His record i-is 29 bowls of ramen." It was hard to tell whether Hinata was embarrassed by those facts or proud of her hanyou boyfriend because her face was still bright red. Although that number of bowls made a visible sign of disturbance with Shino. His body shifting slightly in disbelief.

"Hmm… that sort of consumption isn't healthy for you Naruto-kun. From now on I want you to limit yourself to 2 Ramen bowls every two days. If you have any more then that I will not help you develop your jutsu for a whole month." Naruto's head spun round to look at his sensei so fast that everyone thought he may have snapped his neck, a look of complete horror replacing his usual happy face as he desperately tried to stammer out an excuse.

"Bu.. Wha.. Wh.. Whe.. BUT WHY?" He screamed it horror, falling to his knees he started begging as he crawled his way to Kurenai, slowly transforming into a little kit with very big eyes. Kurenai just shook her head with a smirk, amused by his attempts before lifting the little kit up and tossing him on his bed. Large fake tears falling from his eyes, obviously another illusion he had conjured up to attempt to help him.

"The reason I set you that restriction is because you need to start eating normal and more healthy food. You must eat better if you wish to develop better as you grow. You don't what to stay as short as you are now forever do you?" Kurenai knew for a fact that he wasn't short, having outgrown most his own age but a fair amount. But she knew that it would be something to hit his nerves, and shut up his annoying fake tears.

It had the desired effect as almost instantly Naruto stopped his little mini tantrum and slowly transformed back to his normal self, albeit a lot more in a sulking mood.

Shino too found it amusing on how his sensei messed with his hyperactive teammate, for some reason he seemed to like Naruto's rather 'odd' habits. Although he also found his childish and unprofessional nature rather irritating at times, but he knew that he could count on his strength.

A soft knock at the door distracted Team 8 from their laughing at Naruto, and in an instant Naruto's sour mood vanish, being replaced by a rather happy waving of his tails and his eyes brightened up.

Kurenai answered to door as her team continued to unpack and before her stood a young woman with long black hair in a nice white kimono standing at the door. Before Kurenai could even greet her the woman bowed low as she addressed her.

"Oh h-hello, I-I'm so sorry if I am interrupting anything Ninja-sama. My name is Kishio Unami and my daughter Kikyo wishes to know if she can see your student Naruto-san. I understand perfectly if you can't allow this but she really wanted to see him." Kurenai bowed back politely to the woman before smiling slyly. Although Naruto was a perfect student in regards to willingness to learn he was incredibly hard to keep calm and entertained during less… 'interesting' tasks such as planning out tomorrows strategies. And as such found this to be the perfect opportunity.

"I will allow him to spend time with your daughter Unami-san, wait right here and I'll send him to you. You can have him for 2 hours after that I will need him back." Kurenai smiled again as the woman bowed low once more, before she closed the door to explain to Naruto.

"Naruto-kun, that little girl you were playing with earlier today wishes to see you. Here mother is at the door waiting for you, you can go spend time with her but I want you back in 2 hours got it?"

Naruto was perhaps a little too excited for just spending a little time with a 3 year old, but he obviously liked the little girl. Although it was far too easy to predict Naruto's following question of 'If Hinata-chan can come too.'.

"No Naruto-kun I need her here. You go be with that little girl and I shall be here later to talk with you. If you do a good job of looking after her and also make it back on time I might give you a secret hint to that helping with your chakra control exercise with that crystal. And… I'll maybe even show you a genjutsu of mine for you to try and copy with your illusions." Kurenai knew she had him hook, line and sinker at just the chakra control tip, but she needed to make sure his mind was occupied with excitement so he didn't question why she was allowing him to slack off for the night.

In an instant Naruto lept up, running over to Hinata giving her a quick kiss on the lips, which caused her to go bright red from embarrassment at being kissed infront of her sensei and teammate, before he sped through the door of their room, almost knocking over poor Kishio in his hurry.

Laughing heartily at his sheer levels of energy and enthusiasm, as well as her own ability at manipulating/controlling him, she turned to the remainder of her students. "Right you two, we need to come up with a decent plan and a number of strategies for dealing with tomorrows mission. They may only be bandits but we must still be wary of traps and ambushes."

Hinata looked up at her sensei, evidently a little weirded out that she would exclude her Naruto in such an important team exercise. Something Kurenai obviously picked up from the girls expression.

"You don't need to worry Hinata-chan, Naruto wouldn't have the patience to plan out the strategies we need as he is more of a hands on person. Besides, I sent him out also because I know he would be continually searching for any danger, with his sense of hearing and smell if anything is to happen tonight he will be the first to sense it and as such is the perfect scout tonight."

Hinata had to admit that here sensei's reasonings were sound, although for some reason she just couldn't shake the strange feeling that something wasn't right. Although she couldn't tell if it was something to do with her Naruto-kun, or it was something else. Shaking her head to rid herself of the feelings she sad down next to Shino as they listened intently to what Kurenai explained to them.

Back at Konoha, inside the main meeting hall of the Hyuga's Main Family. Hiashi silently sipped his tea as he sat at the head of a long mahogany table, trying his best to ignore the constant ramblings of the Hyuga Elders that joined him at the table.

It wasn't often that a meeting of this nature was called, and so far Hiashi saw no need for it as they only seemed to discuss simple matters like the number of Hyuga children joining the academy, the number of missions given to them over the last month. Trivial things that Hiashi knew he wasn't needed for as they dealt with all of the logistics while he was the one to decide upon the more important matters that actually influenced the clan.

Although looking over at Hiroshino Hiashi knew the old coot held something up his sleeve. Something he knew that he wasn't going to like but still needed to know and as such was the only reason he hadn't bothered to just adjourn the meeting. Hiroshino had been a rather sneaky member of the Elder Council in the clan for many years now and Hiashi prayed for the day when he would just hurry up and die from old age. It seemed he just object to everything Hiashi said and would always raise an argument over the simplest of matters. But above all it's his 'traditional' way of thinking about the Branch family that really ticked Hiashi off.

"Hiashi-sama, I believe that you have a particularly important topic to discuss with us yes?" Hiroshino called out from the other end of the table, a sickly sweet and innocent grin forming on his face.

Placing his tea down slowly, Hiashi just looked up in his 'superior and super stoic' face and declined Hiroshino's claim, stating that there was nothing to his knowledge that he needed to discuss.

"I'm more talking about your daughter's suitor Hiashi-sama, she is coming of age soon and must be married to an appropriate suitor that would make a good clan leader. I'm sure you yourself have thought heavily on this and have come up with a good solution that is most beneficial for the clan yes? If you are lacking candidates I'm sure my grandson would make a find suitor." Hiashi's face suddenly darkened as he glared daggers at Hiroshino, it wasn't often he should emotion to other Hyuga, especially the Elders. But this was just a little too far, although probably the best time to mess with the old badger.

"Why yes she is reaching the age where she must be wed, but I already have a suitor I have been studying and I believe he will make a perfect husband for my daughter." Hiroshino seemed to have been predicting that as an answer and immediately counted with something he knew would stir the other elders.

"I hope you don't mean that demon brat Hiashi? You would not consider bringing that tainted blood into the Hyuga clan would?" Hiashi narrowed his eyes further at that semi-rhetorical question, he just knew that Hiroshino would start this up.

"What would make you say that Hiroshino-sama, you know I only think of what's best for the clan." Hiashi countered as carefree and emotionless as he could, sipping his tea again to display a disinterest in the topic.

"I have heard the rumours Hiashi, the rumours that your daughter is getting a little too 'friendly' with the demon child. You shouldn't even be letting her near it let alone that 'close' to it. You are getting weak Hiashi, perhaps it is time that you step down and let a stronger more suitable leader take your place." The other elders eyes widened in surprise that the literal stab at the Hyuga clans leader, their superior, and most of them had to wonder about his words as they were borderline treason.

"I would watch your tongue if I was you Hiroshino, you may be the eldest of our clan but I am the Head! You will respect my position and authority over this clan! Everything I do is in the whole clans best interests! This meeting is over, you will all go home as there is nothing further we need to discuss." Hiashi bellowed in a surprising moment of anger, before storming out of the meeting room.

"Then lets hope you have chosen someone suitable Hiashi-_sama_, you know full well what will happen to your daughter if you haven't!" Hiroshino smiled wickedly as did the other elders as they watched Hiashi continue to storm from the room. While the other elders didn't agree with their Hiroshino words they all knew what needed to be done. The first part of the plan had been implemented years ago, the remaining few parts were only just beginning. The Hyuga Clan would once again shine and return back to its former glory, and they would do anything to achieve that goal.

Even if to achieve that goal meant that their leader would have to be 'removed' like his wife was.

Outside the room three Branch family members had been listening intently to the meeting that had happened inside. Ever since young Naruto had stood up for them when he first met them they had been helping him wherever they could. Whether that be turning a blind eye to his 'out of hours' visits or handing him the guard timetables or just listening for information. They knew that this piece of information would be vital and as soon as they heard Hiashi approaching they quickly left. Intent on telling Hizashi everything they had heard.

Hinata thrust her hand forward once more as she tried again to attempt to recreate the technique. It was late at night, probably nearing almost midnight, but she couldn't sleep. She didn't know why but something was bothering her, something that she just couldn't shake. So instead of just worrying about it and not getting any sleep she decided the best to do was to try and practise that chakra control theories she read from the Forbidden Scrolls to help clear her mind.

The techniques that were described in the scrolls were only theory and there was very little way of proving that they would actually be useful for anything. But she just had a feeling that she could find something to do with them, whether they turn useful or not would be yet to be seen.

Turning to another tree near her in the forest clearing she was training at she returned to her family's fighting stance, her Byakugan blazing brightly as she focused her chakra to the centre of her hands in massive amounts of concentrations of chakra in just a very very small circle on her palm.

'_The chakra must be molded and sculpted into the most smallest of spaces, influencing the control and concentration of the chakra would make it difficult to keep under these conditions. But manipulating chakra in such a manner and to such levels of concentration would be bound to improve all point-accuracy and point-control levels of chakra control.'_

Hinata felt deep within her, reaching for her highest concentration of chakra and easily pulled it up, willing it to her control and quickly shifting it to her hands. She could see the brightness of her chakra reflect strongly from her hands, her Byakugan providing the perfect training tool to manipulate it to the very centre of her hands. When she had found the perfect centre she started to amass massive amounts of chakra to the same location, condensing it to levels that were described within the scroll. It made her hands heat up tremendously from the high levels of energy but it was a pleasant warmth.

'_The next idea of this exercise originates from a medics ability to form what is known as 'Chakra Scapels' which are blades of highly concentrated and extended chakra from the tips of their hands. But what if this chakra concerntration was pushed further? And instead of extended but expelled as the thinnest of lines? Would it be possible to cut things just like the Chakra Scapel but on a slightly ranged distance? And if so, how much chakra would be required for such a technique, and more importantly how would anyone let alone expert level medical ninja ever hope to achieve such a level of chakra control?'_

Following the instructions again Hinata focused the chakra in her hands into an even tighter circle, barely visible to even her Byakugan at the levels she condensed it. But as she concentrated and tried to expel the chakra as tiny lines above her hands she found her control slipping. Quickly stricking out with a swift arching palm strike along the trees surface, Hinata could easily see the chakra dissipate as soon as it was released from her palms. Ouch again failing her technique.

"What are you doing Hinata? You shouldn't be out this late as you will need to be well rested for the mission tomorrow." Hinata jumped almost out of her skin at the sudden voice of her sensei mere centimetres behind her. How she had not seen her approach with her Byakugan's 360 degree vision she would never know. Perhaps she had just been concentrating on her exercise so intently she just didn't see anything else.

Turning around quickly Hinata desperately attempted to stammer our her reasons, while at the same time trying to hide her embarrassment. "I-I-I'm sorry Kurenai-sensei, I-I-I was j-just practising a t-t-technique I had seen a l-l-little while ago but I-I can't s-seem to get it r-right." In her embarrassment she fell backwards and landed into a patch of grass.

Kurenai just laughed at her young student's shyness. She would eventually need to break her out of it but it was still a cute thing to see.

"Don't worry Hinata I'm not angry. It's a chakra control exercise yes? Perhaps you could explain it too me and I could help. Besides, I'm sure Naruto-kun would be all over you with excitement if you show him you can do a new technique." Kurenai just laughed again as Hinata lit up like a lightbulb from such a simple statement before sitting down on the grass next to her to listen intently.

She had been watching her train for almost an hour and the technique she seemed to be practising was quite interested to her, perhaps even something that may be useful to her.

Somewhere in the mountains behind Kuzaku Town

Three cloaked figures dashed through the thick underbrush of the forest each of them covered head to toe in pitch black cloth, completely descuising them and blocking every part of them from view except for their eyes. Eyes that reflected the darkest parts of their souls and emotions, reflecting all the dark sins they had committed and the utter madness boiling within their minds at the thought of the murder and assassinations they were committing tonight.

Stopping silently behind a tree each, they gave a quick glance to one another, each of the silently smiling equally evil grins as they reached for their weapons. They had been payed to 'slaughter' as their benefactor had put it, so a slaughter was what they would give.

On a silent nod they leapt out to complete their mission, the only sound heard throughout the night sky was the sound of pain filled cries as the targets were literally torn to shreds.


	28. Chapter 27: A Boy of Angst, Hatred and F

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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Next chapter! A little slower in storyline progression then I wanted but I guess it gives me more to work with when I change it to novel. ;)

OH! And I have almost done the next chapter too! So I might be able to release the next chapter after just 1 week!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any affiliated products. I do however own any original plot-line or characters of this story.

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Chapter 27: A Boy of Angst, Hatred and Fury

Kurenai squinted slightly at the onrush of light that met her fiery red eyes as she walked out of the inn they were staying at and into the early morning light. Yawning slightly at still being slightly tired, she had stayed up a little later with Hinata then she had been planned. The girl was a prodigy and complete genius when it came to chakra control, easily performing the most complex of exercises. Exercises that had taken herself many months of practice and yet Hinata was able to perform them after a few attempts alone.

Her fascination with her students hidden talents and the new technique she was practicing had caused her to lose track of the time of night. Which was a grave mistake and one she was ashamed of as a Jonin shouldn't make such foolish mistakes that could endanger their team. She just hoped that letting Hinata sleep in a little bit more before they set out would be enough to keep her at full strength. If not she had a few energy pills that should help her along.

Her eyes slowly adjusted enough to the direct morning sun and low and behold the first sight she saw was a rather large fox running about the village in a rather odd fashion.

Kurenai rolled her eyes as she watched Naruto carry a number of the villager's children on his back, having transformed into a fox the size of a large dog he was able to fit 5 kids on his back while he was carrying another four with his tails. He ran around the main square jumping around playfully but careful enough to not to drop any of the laughing children on his back.

At being called by one of the villagers she watched her student eagerly bound over to the woman and carefully knew down so one of the children could dismount his back.

"Say thank you to the nice young man." The mother of the child instructed as she herself gently scratched his ears.

"T-Thank you Mr. Fox." The little girl giggled out as Naruto licked her face with his long tongue.

Kurenai watched from the doorway as he slowly returned all the children he was playing with, all except Kikyo who still road on the back of his neck. It was interesting to see how he interacted with everyone as she didn't see much of him back at Konoha, he always seemed to be afraid of going near anyone there.

After awhile Naruto slowly slip Kikyo off his neck and transformed back to his normal form, but Kurenai was rather surprised when she felt a rather large pulse of chakra from him, she watched in amazement as the village slowly melded away, revealing in its place a beautiful field of flowers, a plain stretching as far as the eyes could see. A few of the villagers that had gathered to watch Naruto play with their children were rather shocked at the illusion and began to fret at what had happened.

But Naruto slowly began to explain what exactly it was and began to slowly lift the illusion to reveal the village was still there.

Kurenai wanted to scowled him for his foolish display, not only was he giving away his abilities to unknown people but she just couldn't stand show-offs and would beat that bad trait out of him. But as she took a step forward she felt Shino's hand touch her shoulder and was stopped when she heard the whole village cheer and clap for Naruto when the illusion finally disappeared in full.

"While I myself would never do such a thing sensei as to show my abilities, Naruto-san is different. Look at his face sensei, there is a lot of normal things in life that he has been deprived of, all this attention he is receiving is something he craves. He use to do all sorts of pranks back at the academy, just to see some of us laugh and to see our smiles. He is an open book when it comes to emotions, and while that may endanger him one day, it is his strengths." Shino said insightfully, he had known and watched Naruto since they had started the academy together and as such been studying him as carefully as he could, being that Naruto was the most 'different' person he had ever met.

"Its there acceptance he likes so much, see his smiles as they clap for him? They are not afraid of him and do not think wrong of him like Konoha does. He is so unuse to such attention and acceptance that he is just naturally clinging to it. Think of it in terms of a pet, sensei. All pets coward and fear being mistreated, but show them kindness, feed them and care for them and they will love you unconditionally."

Kurenai nodded slowly at her students words, Shino was perhaps the best person to observe and explain Naruto's everyday behaviour as he and his clan specialized in understanding nature and all its creatures. She had been judging Naruto as a normal young man ever since she met him, she just didn't see his perspective of things, being able to be part kitsune was a difficult thing to comprehend and it irritated her that she would be a bad sensei to him for it. Especially when even her other students can understand him better then she could.

"Yes… I know. Shino-kun, did you know him before you two started the academy?" Kurenai asked off-handedly, only now just noticing Naruto's big grin and he showed the villagers more of his illusions, he genuinely looked happy, a look she had only seen on her hanyou student when he was with Hinata.

"No I did not, I had seen him a few times around the village, but usually just passing glances and I never really spoke to him even at the academy. We of the Aburame Clan do not interact much with many people, especially when our insects are agitated by someone else's presence, he chakra is always unsettling for my companions." Kurenai nodded slowly as he spoke, her team was so different from one another it was astounding, Shino seemed so 'mature' compared to her other students.

"So what do you think about the suppose campsite we will find the bandi-" While she thought it best to change the topic to a more mission focused one she was forced to stop as she felt another large pulse of dark chakra, this one a little different and for her easily recognisable on what technique Naruto was about to display this time. "-NARUTO UZUMAKI DON'T YOU DARE USE THAT JUTSU!"

Shino took a step back at the sudden rage his sensei. He had grown in just a few weeks to have great respect for his sensei as he could relate to her high level of thinking and analysis and logic. But to see her just suddenly 'snap' in almost all sense of the word was a little unsettling for the Aburame to say the least, his Kikai beetles buzzing to imitate his shocked expression.

A good portion of the villagers quickly scattered seeing a rather angry woman walking there way, the rest looked on in mild amusement having realised that the young fox man before them must have been about to do something that his sensei forbade.

Naruto instantly turned to the direction he heard his sensei yell, his sensitive ears ringing at the sheer volume and he lowered them and his head in preparation for the lecturing he knew was coming.

"Naruto Uzumaki! I forbade you from ever using that 'jutsu' of yours unless I allow it. It is an insult of a technique and I will not be having you show it off!" Naruto shrinked down at the scolding, he honestly knew that most women found his technique offensive, except for Anko who fully supported it of course, but he knew that it was a very useful technique.

"But Kurenai-sensei, I wasn't going to do _all_ of the technique, I was still going to have clothes on." Naruto begged as his head and ears drooped further at his sensei's intense gaze. He knew he was dead meat but it was his nature to try and wriggle out of trouble. His chances of that happening dropped to zero when Kurenai lifted him up to eye level by his scruff.

"I don't care, you know I forbade you to do it and you went to attempt it anyway, I will be increasing your ban on Ramen by another week." Kurenai had a difficult time keeping her 'scowling teacher face' and not burst out laughing when she saw his eyes shoot open in horror. While he couldn't move his body she could certainly feel that he tried.

"Now if you try to argue it further I will increase it by double that. Shino and myself are off to see Kiharu to get the last minute mission details before heading off, can you please go and get Hinata and meet us at the monastery in ten minutes." Slowly putting her hanyou student down she almost chuckled at his solemn expression, his ears and head bent down as he dragged all four of his unmoving tails along the dirt as he silently headed to the inn.

Kurenai had to admit that while she sometimes found him difficult to teach he really could easily be controlled with a simple threat of no food. _'He really is like an animal in that respect.'_ Kurenai thought to herself with a chuckle, before beckoning for Shino to follow her as she began to walk through the village.

Naruto was grumbling to himself about 'stupid unfair senseis' as he slowly dragged himself through the inn front door, one of his tails lashing out slightly at the door frame in frustration. It was only a light tap but it still was enough to dent it. Naruto didn't even acknowledge the innkeepers good morning as he slowly started to ascend the stairs.

"Well at least Kurenai-sensei is letting me get Hinata-chan, that was nice of her atleast." Naruto's mood instantly picked up at the thought of having a quick snuggle with his Angel before the mission really began, suddenly forgetting that the lack and ban of Ramen was plaguing his mind.

Naruto raced up the stairs and down the corridor, making sure that his tails didn't make any further dents as he sped along. Although he was in quite a hurry, he did skid to a stop outside the door, intent on entering as quietly as possible in case she was still sleeping.

He wasn't sure why his sensei had told him and Shino to let her sleep a little longer, he had assumed the extra few run overs of the mission plan were probably good if she heard them. But no matter how he argued Kurenai just kept telling him to leave her sleep.

Slowly nudging the door open his ears twitched as he listened carefully for the sound of her sleeping breaths. But when he heard nothing but the sound regular heartbeat his curiosity overpowered his better judgement and he leapt into the room, preparing to big his beloved angel and big hug. But he froze when he saw his angel sitting up in her bed, staring down with a worried glance at her hands.

Hinata could barely concentrate on the stinging from her hands as she applied her homemade healing salve, her mind was far to lost in both worry and memories to notice the small burn looking marks that had appeared on her hands from last nights training. _'Do they really think that's all I am? Do they really think I'll just be nothing... but a burden?'_

**Flashback**

_"Hiashi-sama! I must protest! We can't send our heiress out on a potentially life-threatening mission!" Hiashi just scoffed at the elders of the clan before him. Each of them presenting various reasons on why not to send his daughter on a C-Rank mission. _

_Hiashi had always been particularly gifted when it came to the analytical side of the Byakugan, leaving him the ability to easily see true emotions as well as reasons behind why people say and think what they do. Also giving him the ability to see the truth behind all words. But he didn't even need his byakugan to see why the elders were so against a 'low danger level' mission: They didn't believe his daughter could handle it._

"_And why shouldn't she be sent on the mission? She will be amoungst two other high level graduating genin, one from the Aburame Clan the other the Jailor of the Nine Tailed Fox as well as sharing in its traits. Not to mention she will have Kurenai Yuuhi, Konoha's Genjutsu Mistress as a Jonin sensei. Not only will she protected by her fellow teammates and sensei, but she is also more then capable of defending herself against any dangers that are possibly involved in a C-Rank mission. Unless you all of course doubt this? That you doubt she is capable of performing the duties involved as a Shinobi of Konoha?"_

_There was a long pause followed Hiashi's accusation, the elders were all sharing odd looks as they spoke quietly amoungst themselves before one of the eldest spoke up._

"_Will all due respect Hiashi-sama, your daughter does show a great deal of 'potential' but she does not in our eyes posses the skills and the shinobi 'instincts' that may be needed on a mission that could involve the need to kill." Hiashi's eyes narrowed at the elder who had spoken up. In a way he agreed that he doubted his daughter could kill so openly, but the Gentle Fist style could also be used to disable just as easily as kill so he knew she would be fine._

_The argument escalated from there on, both sides arguing on reasons why and why not Hinata should be allowed to go on the mission. Some of the elders bringing up old records of her failings in certain training areas while others argued on her recent odd behaviour and such. One even brought up the fact that the 'demon' she was teammates with could kill her if he got too out of control on a mission._

_As the argument raged on, off to one side of the open room, standing behind a small pillar, was Hinata listening intently to everything that was said about her. From her failings, to her inability to kill, to her lack of Byakugan ability. It hurt her, it hurt quite deep in her heart that her own family thought so little of her. While she was happy that her father was defender her, it still hurt knowing that the elders of the clan thought she was 'inadequate' to perform a simple C-Rank mission._

_Small tears had begun to fall from her eyes, and she quickly wiped them away to prevent them from continuing. She had never had much self-confidence, and what she did have was always inspired into her by her beloved Kitsune Hanyou. And it was at his mention, and particularly his mention as a demon that she felt a small spark of anger at there words. _

_Naruto was everything to her, everything! And yet the elder members of her family always thought nothing of him, like he was little more then a devious beast! She knew they hated the Fox they lay caged inside him, but he was not a demon, he was her reason to go on and the only reason she trained every day. So she could be someone he truly deserved, he was a wonderful person to her, and she would __**not**__ let them speak ill of him._

_While her nerves were a little shot, her anger at the elders of her clan was stronger and steel herself as she slowly turned from behind the pillar and slowly took strong steps towards the gathered crowed. Silencing them all by her sudden appearance, even her father who was looking at her wipe eyed._

_It wasn't the fact that she had appeared before them that had them all wide eyed, nor the fact that she may have overheard parts of their 'conversation', nor the fact that as long as they had known the shy heiress she had never had the courage to stand before them. It was the look in her eyes, the fiery passion burning within them, showing her determination and a look of fierce confidence they had never seen on her face before. A look that seemed quite out of character on her normally shy and gentle face. _

_They half expected her to start yelling at them all with the look she had, but instead she shocked them with a few simple words, words that seemed to hold more power in them then anything they had ever heard come from her mouth._

"_Naruto-kun is not a monster, I will not have you speak of him in such a way." That was all she said before turning her back on all the gathered elders and walking away, and yet it held more feeling and power then anything else she could of said to them. A small tear could almost be seen forming in Hiashi's eyes, cause as he watched his daughter walk away he could of sworn he saw the image of his late wife walking in her stead._

**Flashback end**

Hinata shot up in sudden surprise when she felt something touch her, pulling her from her memory. Although she relaxed into the object when she realised what touched her was soft and fluffy.

"Are you ok Hina-tenshi?" Naruto said as he sat down next to his girlfriend, pulling her closer slightly with his tail that had wrapped around her. He had grown use to Hinata's occasional introspectiveness, but the look she had earlier worried him.

Hinata giggled slightly when one of Naruto's tails tickled her, and she giggled even more before going bright red when he nipped slightly at her neck. "S-S-Stop it N-Naruto-kun! Kurenai-sensei or S-Shino-san could w-walk in." She stammered out in sudden embarrassment at his actions. Playfully trying to push him away, despite how futile it was considering his strength.

Naruto's response was to just hold her hands back, forcing her to lie down on the bed as his tails started to tickle her all over. Causing her to burst out in laughter while trying desperately to squirm away from his playfully onslaught. "Hahahaha-P-Please N-Naruto-kun-Hahaha-S-Stop! P-Please Stop!"

"Hehe only if you tell me what's bothering you Hina-tenshi!" Naruto called back, laughing himself at his girlfriends predicament. He liked to make Hinata laugh, even if it was from just tickling her, she just had the purest of laughs, one he really enjoyed to hear. He continued his tickle torture until Hinata's laughs could barely even be heard, having been replaced with a squeal as she fought to throw him off her. But he wouldn't let up until she promise between breaths that she would tell him.

Quickly jumping back, he allowed his girlfriend to catch her breath, smiling cheekily as she glared at him in mock anger, his tails waving gently behind him making him look like a large pet at the end of its master's bed. Although looking at the forlorn visage that passed over Hinata's face, his cheeky mood was quickly dropped. She looked hurt… by what he didn't know, but whatever it was also seemed to have her worried, a look that cut his hurt to witness on her beautiful face.

"I… I'm just sort of w-worried about the mission Naruto-kun… I know o-our mission is to retrieve the t-treasure… but what if we need t-to well 'defend' o-ourself from the bandits… I'm not sure i-if I could do that…" It had been awhile since Hinata looked so vulnerable and it made Naruto seethe in fury at what could have upset her. Although he could tell that right now she didn't need him to be angry so instead he moved closer to her, pulling her into a hug as his tails wrapped around her tightly holding her close to him as she shook slightly in worry.

"Don't be so silly Hina-Tenshi, you are much stronger then you think! Remember you kicked Sasuke-teme's arse the other day in that spar? He was soooo angry too!" Naruto exclaimed with a boisterous laugh, and smiling when he heard Hinata giggle too. He continued to recount the events of the spar, emphasising completely on how 'awesome and amazing' Hinata was throughout the whole match.

Hinata remembered the spar very well, she could swear she still could feel one of the bruises Sasuke had left on her. Sasuke far outclassed her in fighting skill and had been dominating the entire spar and while it was only a friendly spar he hadn't been holding back so she had been on the defence the whole time. She had only won that fight on a lucky Gentle Fist strike she made to his chest, effectively winding him completely.

But the way Naruto retold the spar made her smile, he always as so much confidence in her and was always so amazed by everything she did. It made her feel so special on how highly he thought of her, it always made her feel so loved and appreciated whenever he spoke to her. To him she truly was like an angel to him, and she couldn't ask for a better person to love.

Feeling the warmth of his hold, the touch of his words Hinata could almost feel tears coming to her eyes at how wonderful he always made her feel in the smallest of time, with the simplest of gestures.

Naruto hadn't stopped yabbering on about how awesome she was the whole time, but his ramblings were brought to a sudden stop when she surprised him by kissing him gently on the lips. Leaving a rather funny dazed look on his foxy face when she pulled back. "I l-love you N-Naruto-kun." She said genuinely, her face slightly hidden as she looked down in mild embarrassment. Although it was her turn to be surprised when she was scooped up off the bed by Naruto's powerful tails, before behind held bridal style.

"I love you too Hina-tenshi." Naruto replied gently, before leaning down and planting a passionate kiss in return. The young couple loved to treasure these moments together, even if they were only short kisses and hugs the fire that exploded within them both at the simplest of touches brought them such joy and happiness. Moments they would trade for anything in the world.

Slowly pulling back Naruto looked down with a smile at the lightly blushing angel in his arms. A sense of peace and belonging always filled him when he watched her smile. "Hehe come on Hina-tenshi! We can't be late for the mission." Before Hinata could even think of replying he spun her around onto his back with his tails before taking off at blinding speeds.

Running out of there room onto the balcony before he leapt clean off the third floor, landing oddly gracefully as he continued to speed through the village towards the monastery stairs. A mirthful laugh was the only thing that could be heard from the young couple as they watched the villager's jaws drop in awe.

In the monastery

"So Kurenai-san, are you sure that your team will be able to find these bandits? We have known about there possible threat for a long time, but have never been able to locate them. Mainly because we have never had a reason to find them." Kiharu said calmly, almost as flat and solemn as he had spoke yesterday. Team 8 didn't know why, but it seemed the head monk was so much wiser then he looked, reminding them greatly of their Hokage.

"Yes Kiharu-san I am sure they are quite capable. We are to only find and return the relic that is all. For a Konoha Tracking Team that will be a simple task, and if we run into any trouble with the bandits my team and I could easily handle it." Kurenai confirmed with pride, she knew such a mission was easy for her team, she had great confidence that they would be fine.

"As you say it, now before you head off is there any assistance we could offer your team?" He asked genuinely handing a small piece of paper to a still raging Daisuke next to him.

"Actually we need just one, to be allowed into the room that the bandits raided the relic from." Kiharu's brow creased slightly at the request, it was an odd one and one that he wasn't sure if he could grant. That room was a very sacred place and only monks from the monastery were allowed to enter. It wasn't until Kurenai exaggerated on why that he considered it.

"You see, as a tracking team we can rely on many different skills to find out target, in this instance my student Naruto Uzumaki, will need the scents of the bandits to find our first heading direction."

Kiharu shifted his vision to the young hanyou that sat with his teammates behind there sensei, he could tell so much about him from a simply glance it was amazing. He could see so much of the boy's past and current feelings just by looking long enough into the red-rimmed blue eyes. So much latent power, so much wisdom, yet so much crushed sense of self, a hidden vault of pain and sorrow, memories of the past that held such a weighting burden and a part of self hatred buried under part real and part false pride.

He also understood the young hanyou's abilities and therefore knew they would need his keen sense of smell. "Very well it shall be done, Daisuke please escort our guests to the hall of the first Lord of the Land of Fire. If there is anything else you need Kurenai-san please feel free to ask, I will pray for the success of your mission." Without another word the head monk stood slowly, before bowing in respect to Team 8 and leaving silently, his hands being placed together obviously already starting his prayers.

Team 8 looked expectantly at Daisuke, but the young boy was still refusing to look any of the in the eyes, and it truth, Team 8 didn't really want to see his eyes. His whole being still extruded rage and malice, an over powering mixture of hatred and revenge seemed to fill and darken the air around him.

It was a presence that made Naruto in particular shiver, it reminded him so much of the Fox that he kept caged within himself, cause everything he travelled to the 'sewer' that was his inner mind that fox always felt the same as Daisuke did right now. It was an eerie resemblance.

Without warning Daisuke stood up, his head still looking down as his hands continued to shake in rage. He didn't even glance in Team 8's direction, or acknowledge there presence, he just started walking away and out of the main hall, forcing Team 8 to follow behind him. All hoping he was at least heading towards the room they had asked to see.

They followed him down many long corridors, the only sound to be heard was the soft echoing of their shoes against the stone fall, well, except for Naruto of course as he hated wearing shoes. Naruto never liked silence, and Hinata was a little too reminded of her Training House back home from the enclosed space, so both Genin tried to entertain a conversation with Daisuke both asking him a few questions or trying to get him to talk back. But he just refused to even acknowledge there presence. Something that ticked off Naruto in particular.

At one time Shino even asked a interested question about the monastery and the role of the monks here, but still Daisuke gave no reply. It was at that lack of reply that Kurenai was shocked to see Shino raise his arm slightly, allowing three very small Kikai beetles to fly from under the sleeves and hide themselves on Daisuke's person. Of course unknown to him. Kurenai would have said something to her student, but she trusted his judgement as he was the most rational of her three students.

It wasn't long until the long corridors came to an end opening up into huge room easily three times bigger the Naruto's little house. It was the same stone walls and flooring as the rest of the monastery but this particular room was brightly lit by about 20 fiery torches.

There was nothing significant about the room except at the furthest wall stood a small stone alter with a lavish red silk cloth covering it. Upon it sat three golden candlesticks and a large framed painting of an regal looking old man. Whom Team 8 could only assume was the first Lord of the Land of Fire. There was also a small red pillow with gold trims sitting on the middle of the alter, a small indentation on it indicating that it must have had something resting on it, perhaps the artefact they were employed to retrieve.

"Alright team, search the place, study everything you can find. Naruto, see if you can get us a scent to follow that is easily different to the scent of the monks. Hinata, can you please analyse the room any residual chakra, the bandits don't use chakra but if any of them know the basic of chakra manipulation we can follow them by there chakra signal. Shino, search the room and analyse it as best you can, see if your companions can find anything that Hinata's eyes can not." Immediately on their sensei's word Team 8 set out to complete there tasks, Naruto getting down on all fours, smelling the air for residual scent, Hinata activating her Byakugan to scan the room, while a huge swarm of black beetles flew out from Shino's long coat, covering various areas of the room as they searched for anything their master might be interested in.

All through the search, while it may have been considered a little bit sacrilegious, Daisuke said nothing, and remained motionless as he continued to look at the ground, not once looking at the Shinobi team he was escorting.

Kurenai stayed back, keeping a close eye on her students and Daisuke, not trusting his continually oppressive aura and killer intent.

"K-Kurenai-sensei, I f-found traces of s-some chakra around the r-room, p-particularly around t-the alter... It seems to b-be the chakra of only o-one person and the person using i-it doesn't seem to be v-very experienced in chakra control." At Hinata's report, Kurenai noticed a small shift in Daisuke 's stance, and he seemed to look in Hinata's direction. She could only assume that something Hinata had said actually got a reaction out of him.

As more and more of Shino's insect returned to him, his understanding of the room increased, key details easily missed by the normal human eyes were relayed to him. "Sensei, my insects have reported a number of fresh scratches and dents in the floor and walls, most of the small damage seems to have been done with sharp objects so this room may have been the focal point of the bandits attack." At Shino's report Kurenai watched Daisuke start to shake slightly, again obviously upset with the information. And she could almost start to guess why.

Naruto was a little longer in his report, having found his task a little more difficult. He could smell the scents of rusted iron, obviously from weapons. The smell of dry paper and cloth, perhaps that was the scent of monks who lived in the monastery. The area also held a very 'pungent and off' scent, similar to how man get after weeks without bathing, he could only assume that was the bandits who attacked and would report this scent to his sensei. But there was also one other scent that caught his attention, one he knew well but wasn't sure of the source.

Naruto continued to niff around the room, seemingly following a certain scent as he reported. "I can smell a few different scents Sensei, a few of them I think are the monks who live here, but I can also smell a few of scents that may be from the bandits... but I can also smell blood..."

"Can you identify anything from the blood Naruto-kun? Anything to help is always useful, blood can contain many secrets." Naruto followed the scent of blood around the room trying to find something useful from it for his sensei, but it wasn't until he was near enough to Daisuke that he could relate the blood properly. It had a similar smell to Daisuke but with a more 'sweeter' tinge, indicating female.

As he passed Daisuke, Naruto stood up to face him. Suddenly feeling the boys rage spike once more. It made him sad to realise what the blood was, and he felt a piece of his heart shatter at the memories it brought up. "It... It was her wasn't it Daisuke? This is where Lady Kia, your mother fought th-" Naruto didn't even have a chance to react as Daisuke lunged at him without warning, quickly slamming him into the stone wall with a surprising amount of force. Nearly enough to knock the wind of the hanyou as he struggled against the fist

"DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT HER! DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK OF MY MOTHER! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S IT LIKE TO HAVE EVERYTHING YOU LOVE TAKEN FROM YOU!" Naruto froze slightly in Daisuke's hold, not even attempting to lift the hands from his throat. He was frozen by the look on Daisuke 's face, it was the first time he had seen the boy's eyes, and it was the darkness, the hatred, the sheer level on... murder they held within that shook Naruto to his core. Daisuke 's eyes looked the exact same as the Fox's.

But that shock was short lived, cause as his mind registered the words Daisuke had screamed at him, his rage surged as he was reminded of Hitomi, the only woman to ever been considered his mother. The person who was taken from him by her own family.

Kurenai jumped almost on instinct to help her student, she had been watching Daisuke since they first arrived at the monastery and wasn't overly surprised to see his sudden violence. But before she could help, a strong and firm hand clasp her shoulder holding her back.

"Let them be Kurenai-san, I can tell they both need this. Daisuke-kun needs this as he has yet to find an outlet for his anger, he needs to see there are other coping from the same loss in a more constructive way then he." Kiharu said from behind Kurenai, completely surprising her as she hadn't heard or detected his approach. She wasn't too sure what he meant or how he knew they would be fine, and her nature and training urged her to stop the conflict, but for some reason she found herself listening to him. An order she silently passed to her other two students as them quickly made their way to stand beside her.

Naruto didn't take lightly to the physical assualt and growled darkly in response, his emotions slowly growing stronger as more images of Hitomi and her loving hugs, smiles and complements flashed before his mind. "Let go of me..." Naruto 'demanded' in a dark commanding voice. "Let go now!..." He ordered once more, Daisuke just pushing him into the wall further.

"NO! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE! You ninja are the ones who take lives and yet you know nothing of what it's like to have life taken from you! YOU PROBABLY NEVER EVEN HAD A MOTHER TO LOSS!" That was close to the worst thing Daisuke could have said in his anger, completely ignorant of the fact that he had read the reports on the Hanyou that lived in Konoha. The Hanyou he held by the throat right now.

"I said... GET OFF!" Naruto's eyes narrowed in an instant, his pupils slightly dilating more then usual at the comment. One that actually more cut his heart then invoked his rage. Using his ridiculous natural strength Naruto forced himself off the wall, two of this tails wrapping around Daisuke 's hands, forcing them away from his throat and causing Daisuke to stumble back at the sudden force.

Looking up at the hanyou he had held Daisuke had barely any time to react as he felt a sudden pain erupt in his chest, a loud crack was the last thing his mind registered before he was blown back from the force of the punch he received from the furious hanyou.

"I don't know what you problem is with me, but you have NO RIGHT! to say those things! What do you possibly know about me? At least your mother died in honour m-" Naruto stopped in surprise as his arms instinctively went up to block Daisuke's counter attack, closing his eyes in response to the close strike. A strike strong enough to knock away Naruto's guard and force him to the floor. _'What the hell? I didn't even see him move! And how did he hit so hard? His strength in incredible!'_

Naruto's ear's twitched slightly, hearing a thin 'whistle' in the air was his only warning to the second incoming attack. Rolling to the side in reaction, Naruto's eyes shot open in surprise as the attack shattered the very ground where he lay, pieces of the stone flooring blasting away almost like they were blown up by a paper bomb or explosive jutsu.

Flipping back up into an attacking stance, Naruto lowered himself and shielded his front with his tails. All four moving infront of him to block the exploding debris. In the dust and dirt cloud that erupted from the attack Naruto's sharp eyes spotted Daisuke lunge forward from within it.

Naruto reacted accordingly his hands moving up and forward as he charged forward, catching Daisuke 's attack as his tails quickly wrapped around his limbs.

The rest of Team 8 and Kiharu watched in complete silence as the dust slowly cleared. Hinata and Shino in particular were rather shocked to see the damage Daisuke did with a single strike. Hinata was watching intently with her Byakugan, and she was shocked to see Daisuke using chakra to enhance his muscles as he struck. And in her shock she turned to ask Kurenai, but it was Kiharu who explained the irregularity.

"Most of the monks living here are able to manipulate chakra, not in the same manor as you Ninja, but in a more 'self enhancing' way. We all seek perfect inner self so to assist in that task we all utilize our chakra to enhance our body as we train and fight. Lady Kia, Daisuke and all the guardian's before them have always had rather exceptional ability to perform this 'self enhancing'. He will be quicker, more agile, and stronger then any normal person as long as he has chakra to spare on the enhancing." Hinata and the rest of Team 8 nodded in understanding, they had performed similar exercises where they would strengthen there legs as they jumped through the trees or along rooftops... but not to the degree where they could shatter solid stone flooring!

As the smoke cleared Naruto and Daisuke were revealed to be in a stand off, Naruto's clawed hands were viciously plunged into Daisuke 's bo staff while Daisuke was using his enhanced strength hold his own by forcing his weapon constantly down while stopping Naruto's tails from hurling him away.

_'That's what it was? All he hit me and the ground with before was a wooden staff! Where did he even get it from? I'll snap the stupid thing!' _Naruto growled as he pushed forward, determined to use his supierior strength to push Daisuke and his staff back before slicing it in two. But for some reason he could not get him to even budge slightly!

_'What is he? To be able to stand up to my strength! Don't worry mother, I'll get him for insulting you mother! JUST LIKE I GOT THE REST WHO TOOK YOU FROM ME!'_ All Naruto saw in his opponent's eyes was empty rage, but there was a second there where he saw a hint of insanity, and in that instant he feared if Daisuke would go to far.

Daisuke felt Naruto's hold on his limbs lighten for just and second, and used the opportunity to force the hanyou's tails off his limbs, quickly jumping back out of his adversary's grasp, he then lunged forward, hitting a solid strike downwards to knock away Naruto's guard before twisting suddenly slamming the back end of his staff straight into his gut. "Honour? HONOUR! YOU THINK MY MOTHER DIED WITH HONOUR? SHE WAS MURDERED! WHAT DO YOU FIND HONOURABLE ABOUT BEING MURDERED?" In his rage and partially from his training, Daisuke didn't give his opponent a chance to move as he yelled his objection. Following from the slam to the gut to another spin, slamming Naruto hard across his head. Causing him to yelp out in pain as he was forced flying back, crashing harshly into the stone wall on the other side of the room.

Hinata's hand's unconsciously were brought to her chin as she saw her Naruto brutally bashed to the wall, she never liked seeing him hurt and when she heard him yelp it almost made her cry, he sounded like a wounded animal when he did that and it always crushed her heart to hear such a shattering sound. By nature and instinct she pulled forward, ready to rush to him and defend him if need be, but Shino pulled her back gently by her shoulder. "Don't interfere Hinata-san, he will be alright, you will see. Naruto is a fast thinker when it comes to the battlefield."

Almost in response to Shino's claim a large pulse of dark chakra was heard, followed by a short mumbling barely heard by the members of Team 8. In an instant the dust cleared from the room, but the light from the torches were blocked out by a strange darkness. The darkness shifted around the room like a creepy gas, blackening out every inch of light, leaving everything pitch black.

Daisuke looked around him, the darkness encroaching around him blocking out his sight of his adversary. Thinking the gas was tangible he took a few swipes at it to see if it dispersed, but it didn't move, instead it just continued on its path until Daisuke couldn't even see his hands infront of him. "SHOW YOURSELF YOU COWARD! MY MOTHER NEVER RESORTED TO TRICKERY TO WIN HER FIGHTS!" He didn't know why but the darkness was getting to him, not being able to see anything at all seemed to distress him. Something a certain Hanyou hidden within the dark was counting on.

"Well maybe if she did, she might not have died..." Naruto's voice echoed from the other side of the room, as he spoke a small wisp of blue flame danced in the darkness in the same direction as the voice had come from. It was a cruel thing to say, one that Naruto wished he hadn't, but he needed his opponent to lose his cool to win this fight.

As planned and predicted Daisuke charged at the wisp in a fit of rage, delivering a roundhouse kick to it hoping to strike Naruto hard enough to end the weird darkness he had created. To his shock the wisp just disappeared, allowing his foot to phase straight through it. In response Daisuke spun round, his training stating that he must never give his back to his opponent. But he freaked out and jumped back as a large fox with dripping fangs and blood red eyes lunged at his face. Only to pass straight through him.

He quickly jumped to his feet and swung out with his staff, hoping to strike his opponent but when another vicious and monstrous looking fox lunged at him from the side he lost a bit of his nerve and stumbled. Daisuke 's heartrate and breathing rapidly increased as his fear suddenly began to overcome his better judgement.

Like before a wisp appeared in the darkness, followed by several more as they all began to dance around in the darkness and were the only things anyone could see. "You say your mother was murdered, and from what I have heard that is true..."

"SHUT UP!" Daisuke screamed in frantic fright as he dodged another illusionary fox, only to scream in pain as he felt claws sink deep into his back. Causing him to drop his staff.

"But to have your mother die protecting other, performing her duty to the fullest you should be proud to be her son! She left this world having known she did everything she was suppose to do and she saved many lives in doing so. What is not honourable about that?" Naruto continued his horrible illusion, having various illusions appear of fox's or wisps of Fox Fire all around Daisuke, while attacking every chance he got. Each time causing Daisuke to slip more and more into his fear.

Five fox's appeared this time, each of them instead of lunging forward began to circle Daisuke, growling darkly as they gnashed there teeth at him. Instinctively he tried to kick them away, screaming at them to leave him alone. And when they disappeared he found himself pressed up against a wall. "B-But you don't k-know! Y-YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE!" Daisuke screamed once more through the darkness, desperately trying to find his staff to help defend himself from.

Naruto was slightly surprised at how fast his illusion was effecting Daisuke, if anything he was only expecting to have him slightly nervous but he was literally shaking in fear. Something Naruto could only attribute to the boy's slightly unhinged mindset. And to the fact he was only around 10 years old.

In the middle of the room, a large fox easily the size of the largest of dogs slowly phased into view from within the blanket of darkness, like its predecessors this one had large dripping fangs and eyes that spoke of murder. But this one stood its ground, growling darking as it stared its target down, before speaking in a dark and evil tone, but oddly enough Team 8 could not feel the presence of Naruto's Yokai Chakra emerge even once.. "**You say I don't understand? That I don't know what its like? But I know exactly what its like!**" The large fox roared in a dark and sinister tone, it's four large tails thrashing around violently.

Whether it be a fit of rage again, or a complete lose of common sense from the fear, Daisuke charge forward screaming for the creature to die knowing this one was certainly Naruto. But the great fox just lashed out with one of its tails, slamming hard into Daisuke causing him to crash into the wall, and before he could even fall a huge paw the size of his chest pounded into him, holding him tightly in place.

"**I know what its like because I had my mother taken away too! She was murdered just like yours!**" For a second there Naruto saw Daisuke 's eyes widen slightly in shock at his words, a small slither of clarity seeming to seep into the raging young man's mind. "**But unlike yours it wasn't defending her friends and family that she died, it wasn't performing her duties that she was killed. NO! She was murdered without remorse, MURDERED BY HER OWN FAMILY! She was taken away from me, and from her daughter! And from her second daughter who was barely a week old! You say I don't understand! BUT I UNDERSTAND THE PAIN IT BRINGS JUST AS MUCH IF NOT MORE THEN YOU WILL EVER! And unlike you I don't live in anger or hatred! I live so that I can make her proud! I will do everything she couldn't do so that when I finally do see her again in whatever afterlife exists I know she will happy to see what I have become! She wont see a wrenched useless fool like you have become! Your mother would be ashamed of you!" **

As Naruto's final words were spoke he felt his own tears slowly start to well up from the memories that were surfacing throughout the whole fight, as short as it was. Everyone watched in the room as the darkness slowly retreated, and the many wisps of blue fire dissolved into the nothingness they truly were. And in the great fox's place, it slowly shifted back to the normal Naruto, whom still had his clawed hand pressed firmly against Daisuke 's chest.

Moments passed in silence as the two just stood there. Naruto staring at his opponent as small tears fell from his eyes, and Daisuke he still looked at the ground. A few more moments passed and to the surprise of all present Daisuke slowly lifted his head to look at Naruto, the rage and hatred within his eyes replaced with a look of lost, confusion and perhaps even regret.

"You... Y-You lost your mother just like me?... but her own family... killed her?... My mother... would s-she really be ashamed of me?" Naruto didn't answer, instead he chose to remove his hand leaving Daisuke to fall on his own two feet.

Naruto looked in pity at the younger boy, he could see the pain that was piercing his heart and hoped that in one way he had done Daisuke some good by giving him a different perspective on things. Even if it was only a little bit.

Kiharu walked passed Team 8 and placed an aged hand on Daisuke's shoulders, the boy slowly looking up at his mentor with glassy eyes, the rage completely vanished from them. "Come Daisuke-kun, we have much to do and must leave Team 8 to there mission. You have alot more training to complete if you want to be able to follow in your mother's footsteps." Daisuke didn't say anything, he just continued to look at his mentor with the same lost expression, almost like the boy had his entire purpose taking away, but to everyone's shock he spoke in response after a few moments, his voice sounding so different without its usual rage and hatred.

"F-Follow in my mother's footsteps? I... I can make mother proud... if I achieve what she did... and protect the monastery like she did?" Kiharu just nodded with a big smile as he ruffled the boy's hair before urging him to follow him out of the room.

The two walked in silence out of the room, but as Kiharu passed Kurenai, he withdrew a small envelope from within his robe and handed it too her. "Please, make sure Naruto-san is given this when your mission is complete. I know you will be completely successful in retrieving the artifact." And without another word he and Daisuke left the room, leaving Team 8 alone once more. Although Daisuke seemed to struggle slightly as he held his chest, now that the adrenalin was gone he could obviously feel the cracked rib Naruto gave him at the very start of the fight.

Hinata instantly rushed to Naruto and leapt into his arms in joy that he was ok. Little tears falling from her eyes as she kissed his cheek. "N-Naruto-kun, I'm so glad your o-ok... I was so w-worried when K-Kiharu-sama told us not t-to interfere..."

"Hehe, ah you know me Hinata-chan, I'm not so easy to beat, I kicked his arse!" Hinata just chucked at his response before hugging him tightly, blushing slightly when his tails gently wrapped around her.

"That you did Naruto-san, your method of invoking fear in Daisuke-san was an excellent tactic, one that I'm sure was the absolute best choice for the current situation." Shino complemented his teammate, showing an odd amount of emotion in his voice clearly indicating his amazement and sincerity.

"Yes, very well done indeed Naruto-kun. Though it was a short fight you showed an impressive way of dealing with the situation. Although I don't really think you needed to frighten the poor boy as much or the 'moral' talk necessary, I still believe you did an excellent job and you should be proud of yourself." Naruto smiled brightly as he scratched the back of his head in slight embarrassment at his sensei and team's praise. It wasn't really a good fight, but it was one he certainly wouldn't forget.

Apart from that there was a certain place in his heart that he felt heal in that battle, knowing that he was fighting and living for his mother brought him a sense of comfort that he hadn't felt in a long time. A peace he could feel was blooming in Hinata as well when she whispered a loving 'thank you' into his ear.

As the events from the conflict were resolved, Team 8 finalised there investigation of the room, finally leaving to find there targets when Naruto was able to decidedly track down a distinct sent that seemed to lead them in the direction Kiharu had said the scouts had reported sightings, meaning that had found a good starting trail.

Naruto, Hinata and Shino stood on the edge of the forest surrounding Kuzaku Village with Kurenai standing firmly behind them. Anxiety filling the teens to there very bones as they took there first steps into the forest at their sensei's orders. Knowing that in a few hours, they could very well be finishing there first C-Rank Mission.

"Come on guys! Lets go kick so butt!"


	29. Chapter 28: Dark Shadows, Darker Souls

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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Well this was only two weeks before this chapters release, lets hope that speed continues. ;)

Oh! And for the people that I know will ask about 'Kurenais Past' that isn't revealed too much in this chapter, just wait till next chapter. ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plotline and characters in this fanfiction.

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Chapter 28 – Dark Shadows, Darker Souls

Stopping almost in complete silence upon a shade covered branch, the three figures waited with anticipation as one of there members shifted his stance slightly, his sensitive nose twitching slightly as he smelt the light breeze around him. Scents of sweet flowers, of old wood, of wet decomposing leaf litter and an abundant number of vegetation and fauna. But when the sudden onrush of scents met him and he found a particularly foul smelling he shuddered.

"This way." It was the only direction he gave before taking off, leaping off the outstretched tree branch in a burst of speed he followed the direction of the foul scent he had quickly come to despise. Knowing his two teammates would be following close behind he took no effort to make sure they were aware of his slight change in direction. They were close to there destination anyway, he could smell it.

The three members of Team 8 continued there hurried path through the forest, each making sure to use as little of energy as possible in there travel, encase the need to fight ever arose when they reached the bandit's encampment. Hinata smiled with pride as she watched her hanyou boyfriend easily follow the bandits days old tracks through the forest, usually he was a little quicker in following the scents, but his numerous stops and pauses proved on how difficult it was following the old smells. Obviously diminished by both the days and the forest's nature scents.

Team 8 were taking great precautions despite on how fast they were travelling, Hinata was constantly scanning in a 100m radius around them at all times with her Byakugan. The ability to see in a full 360 degrees and through solid objects, really came in great use in places like thick and dense forests where vision was greatly reduced. And Shino was continually scouting with his Kikai companions, often sending huge swarms of them out in several key directions, a swarm returning to him every so often relaying any useful information they had found.

They all paused once again as Naruto came to a sudden stop, they all noticed how Naruto landed a little oddly on the tree branch, having to dig his claws into it to keep himself from falling and the movement of his tails stopped and so instantly knew something was up. Naruto paused a little longer, seemingly confused as he stood completely stiff sniffing the air slightly, but that confused look was quickly replaced with one of horror, he quickly turned around while performing a few hand gestures. His whole body trembling and his tails grounding themselves to the tree branch as some sort of comfort and safety.

Kurenai had been following her team from a bit more of a distance, observing how they handle the basic parts of the mission without her guidance. She was at a distance where they couldn't rely on her, but where she could step in and help them if danger presented itself. Upon observing the hand gestures Naruto made, indicated they needed her assistance, but from what she could see they were doing perfectly fine.

"What's the problem Naruto-kun?" Kurenai asked gently, not sure what was worrying her hanyou student. Although when he turned to her, and she sure the pale and horrified expression on his face, she could feel her blood run cold. His eyes were off and distant, almost like he had seen a ghost.

"The scent… I-It changes here sensei. I can smell it… blood… lots of blood! All of it fresh!..." Naruto sounded frightened, and it took a lot to evoke any sort of fear in him. Kurenai was actually really starting to worry about 'how much blood' he could smell to get him so spooked and ordered Hinata to do a quick scan in the direction Naruto was indicating with his shaking clawed hand.

Hinata nodded in understanding before quickly performing the sequence of handsigns for her familys bloodline trait. Her Byakugan activating almost instantly after as the veins around her eyes increased in size, utilizing the telescopic ability of her Byakugan eyes she quickly increased her sight range in the direction she was told, easily advancing her sight 500 meters before she could finally see what Naruto could smell.

Without warning Team 8 jumped and rushed over to her at the shrill of horror that followed Hinata's vision of the camp. Instantly she stopped her Byakugan, before bending over and throwing up on spot. Naruto was by her side in an instant, his tails wrapping around her gently as he supported her and stopped her from falling off the tree. He could smell far more then he let on and could only imagine what horrors his girlfriend had just seen. Kurenai by now had stopped thinking this mission was going smoothly and quickly checked Hinata's vitals to make sure she wasn't going into shock.

"Shino! Send your insects to find out what the hell is out there! Now!" Without hesitation, Shino lifted his arms, a _huge_ sea of black insects pouring out of them amassing above his almost like a large rain cloud hovered above him. With a single swipe of his arm he ordered them off and within seconds they had disappeared into the forest. While he was rather concerned on what had upset his teammates so much, he was slightly thankful that his insects could only relay certain key aspects of things, never anything in great detail.

"Hinata, Hinata! Speak to me! What did you see? Hinata calm down and tell me I need to know?" Kurenai asked with great urgency, her worry sky rocketing as tears fell from the Hyuga Heiress's eyes, her breathing literally hyperventilating and her face as white as a ghost.

"B-B-B-Bl-Blood…. S-So m-much bl-blood! T-They… B-Bodies… E-E-Everything b-blood!" Kurenai watched with rising fear as Naruto held onto Hinata, she clinging to him for dear life not able to say anything more as the tears and shot nerves took over her.

'_What did she see?'_

It wasn't long until her answer came, as the buzzing of thousands of Kikai beetles flooded in all around her, the huge black sea of beetles swarming in from all around her returning to their master. Kurenai watched Shino carefully as he silently conversed with his companions, and while most of Shino's face was always covered by the high collar of his jacket or the hood over his head she could see the distinct changes in his face, he too seemed quite taken back by the information.

"They say its just a massacre sensei. That everything there was just slaughtered, bodies literally torn to pieces." Shino relayed, his arms crossing as he entered deep thought, trying to sort the information out in his mind efficiently. His voice usually so calm and collected, had a slight tone of urgency and disgust, a tone that worried Kurenai greatly.

"Naruto, stay here and try to calm down Hinata! Shino, keep on the lookout for any signs of an attack, and get Naruto to signal me with a pulse of chakra if you need me to come back. I'm going to have a look for myself, stay here and protect each other!" Kurenai's voice cracked for a split second, losing its commanding tone and replaced with one that reminded Naruto of all the times his bad memories would resurface. As there sensei quickly left Shino caught a look at her eyes, a flash of recognition could be seen within them, a sense of clarity and worry.

'_You know what's happened and who has done this don't you sensei?' _Shino asked within his mind. His arm raising slightly as a few Kikai left to follow his sensei.

Kurenai raced towards in the direction of the campsite, her eyes narrowing as she approached it, the scent of blood becoming noticeable even to her. _'Massacre? A bandit massacre? Bodies literally torn to pieces… It can't be, they were captured. It couldn't be them?'_ Steeling her mind from the memories that attempted to claw there way to the surface, Kurenai burst forward, landing solidly on the edge of the camps clearing.

Her only reaction, was to fall to her knees as her eyes shot open wide, refusing to look away from the sight before her.

Everywhere she looked, the camp was utter destroyed, the tents and temporary huts torn and shattered, the wood splinted into shreds while the weightstones were shattered. The pieces scattered all over the grounds. But it wasn't the destruction of the camp that was horrifying, it was the bodies, the mutilated pieces of corpses spewn around the entire encampment.

The bodies, mutilated, there limbs ripped to shreds, each of them being in several pieces and scattered around the encampment. Entrails thrown around like a spaghetti food fight. Skulls crushed and shattered, torso's virtually ripped open and many ribs forced to extrude. Arms, legs, hands, feet and hacked off pieces of flesh were just scattered around like leaves. Torso's and skulls literally hacked into four or five pieces were jammed into the shattered wood and frames of the broken camps. Many of the skulls pieces and the few full skulls had there features completely removed, some having tongues cut out while others had there eyes, nose and/or ears removed entirely.

But it wasn't just cuts and slices that 'insulted' these bodies, many of them were also flayed of their skin, burns and melt marks obvious to her keen but shocked eyes. This sort of demonic mutilation of bodies and manor of killings were not human, no normal human being was capable of such horrific destruction and sickening level of depravity.

Kurenai could feel a sense of insecurity wash of her as she continued to stare at the hacked-corpses before her. She could feel it, feelings of insecurity and fear surging through her, she wanted nothing more then to run, to leave this horrific site and block it from her mind forever. The smell was sickening, and the sight nightmarish. And the more she looked the more she could feel herself slipping away, her mind completely overcome by the horrible sight she could feel herself start to slow as her brain because to pass from the world of consciousness.

It puzzled her slightly, she was a Jonin of high ranking status, and had seen death and been the cause of death many times. So as such her emotions had steeled themselves to such an image. And yet the scene before her was effecting her more then she knew, burning her of her desire to press on and sapping her strength to stand and walk away.

'_What… what is this feeling? Am I fainting at such a sight? How… I'm stronger then this…'_

A tinge of chakra in the air caught the Jonin's attention, it was only slight, but it was enough to distract her from her slowing senses, giving her something to concentrate on.

'_This… this chakra, its light and spread out… and I can feel it one me… why? Wait? Genjutsu! This feeling of fainting, dread and helplessness is Genjutsu!'_ Knowing she was by far one of the most powerful ninja in the art of Genjutsu she refused to be overcome by a simple emotion altering one. Snapping out of her daze she gathered a massive concentration of chakra, shaping it into a single layer on the palm of her hands.

Jumping to her feet she performed a super quick sequence of handsigns, before slamming her palms together dispersing the gathered chakra in them while calling out her jutsu. "Art of Genjutsu: Disruption!" Kurenai smiled as she could feel her signature jutsu expand around her and the campsite in a sudden burst of violent feeling chakra.

There were two main ways to disrupt and dispel Genjutsu. The first is to create a large enough pulse of chakra to overcome and overpower the chakra of the Genjutsu, or to have someone inject there chakra into you while you are under the Genjutsu the conflict of chakra would disrupt and dispel it. But her signature jutsu was a little different. It worked by expelling a huge mass of her own chakra that was able to identify the chakra of the Genjutsu in the surrounding area and change its form into the exact type of chakra and blend in and power the Genjutsu before controlling it and dispelling it. It was one of her most valued jutsu and the main reason why no one was able to beat her in her favourite art.

As she felt the Area Genjutsu slowly collapse in on itself she felt the pressuring air and soul depleting emotions lift from the air around her. Allowing her to once again stand and regain control of her steeled emotions. Although she was severely disgusted that the campsite wasn't part of the Genjutsu, the bodies, if you could even call them that, remained the very same, the blood and guts covering the entire plain.

Looking around the campsite she did her best to find the artefact they were sent to find, but her mind was still concerning itself about the presence of the Genjutsu, it's reason for existence seemed so trivial. To trap anyone who passed by in feelings of fear and elevating there emotions on the disgusting scene. Naruto and Hinata were probably mildly effected by it which is why there reactions were so severe. The Genjutu amplified fear and any other horrible feelings that you feel when you look at such a sight.

She was brought out of her confusion when a mild buzzing met her ears, on instinct and partially from the after effect of the Genjutsu she jumped into action pulling out two kunai and assuming a defensive stance. But she almost laughed at herself when a small black cloud rose from within one of the shattered tents. A small swarm of Kikai beetles had located the artefact they were looking for. A small golden statue depicting a Sun and Moon hanging in the sky above a bowing man. She didn't understand the symbolism but she was grateful that Shino's companions were able to find it, mainly because she didn't really relish the idea of walking through the campsite of blood.

The Kikai quickly flew head height for Kurenai and flew towards her, gently dropping the statue in her outstretched hands before flying into the forest to return to there master. Kurenai smiled as she quickly stashed the statue away in her travel bag, before turning to follow them.

To anyone who didn't know any better she was now unfazed by the disgusting sight of the mutilated bandits. But it would have all been an act, a wall or mask she was able to put up to block her mind from dwelling on it. Because deep inside her mind she was hurting so badly at seeing the unhuman destruction. Sure they were bandits and all, but nothing deserves such an abominable death. And it was the memory, the memory of seeing this once before, long ago, that played at her mind. She hoped it wasn't, but she knew who might have done this… the only people capable of such a monstrosity for nothing else then just 'fun', and if she was correct then she needed to get her team out this forest and back to Konoha as soon as she could.

'_It can't be, it just can't be them. But who else would cause such an inhuman destruction without taking a priceless artefact.'_

As she left the clearing she failed to have noticed a shadowy figure hiding on the opposite side, hidden behind the trees and his midnight black cloak. "Well… this has certainly made things interesting. Looks like we might get even more fun then we had hoped for… the others will want to know about this." He stepped back slightly from the clearings edge, further shadowing himself under the blanket of shadow from the canopy. The only parts even barely visible as his visage seemed to dissolving into thin air was a wickedly cruel and murderous smile and the eerie glow of his moonlight grey eyes.

Kurenai appeared before her team in a swirl of leaves, virtually materializing before them. She was pleased to see that with the Area Genjutsu dissolved that all seemed to look calmer and more collected then they had earlier. Although Hinata still held a look of horror as she looked up at her sensei.

"K-Kurenai-sensei… T-They… I-It wasn't r-really like t-that was it?... no one… n-no one could have r-really done that r-right?" Kurenai's smile feel at the frightened tone she heard in her student's voice. Being Ninja they would see far more death, and be the death of some too. But that monstrous atrocity was not death, it was a massacre done by only the most of inhuman of people.

Leaning down to the teenaged heiress, Kurenai forced her student to look at her directly, half prying her from Naruto's comforting hold. "Yes that was real. And there will be times that you will have to kill aswell. I can't say it in a nice way to soften the blow for you but it is our duty. We are by nature 'murderers', 'assassins' we are payed to carry out missions and some may involve killing others." Kurenai saw a fresh load of tears welling in the girl's eyes, and knew that she hadn't fully thought her 'career' path though to that point. But she also saw fear, fear of actually being the one to cause that massacre.

"But what you saw is not killing. What you saw was inhuman, we will never be told to perform such atrocities, it is not the was of the Leaf Village to perform such acts. When we do take life we all feel regret, we do not kill for fun or sport. And we certainly don't mutilate he corpse of who we kill. That is what separates us from common murders, animals and monsters." Hinata's eyes were wet with tears, but even still Kurenai could see some resemblance of understanding form within them. The girl had yet to see death, and seeing that 'image' if you could even call it that must have been more then a little shocking.

Not only that, but she could see the look that passed over Naruto's face at her use of the term 'monsters', she knew he had already taken a life. Abeit he was a kid when he did, but he already knew and could still feel the regret that came with taking life.

"Kureani-sensei… Does it become any easier? I mean, to deal with? Does it become easier to take the pain away?" Naruto asked quietly, his downcast face just staring off at the forest floor beneath them. Kurenai expected such a question from Naruto, particularly in this instance.

"It does become easier yes. But it never truly goes away, but if it ever gets to the stage where you can kill and not feel anything, then and only then, will you be considered a monster." Naruto's eyes widened slightly when he looked at his sensei, an old memory as a child flashing before him.

'… _I can take life, I have already killed 8 people… yet I feel the pain every day, I can feel it eating at me, the pain that comes with taking a life. But for that pain I am glad, because if I didn't feel that pain then I would be nothing but a murderer, nothing but a monster.' _

Itachi had said that to him all those years ago, and here his sensei was saying the same thing. The villagers were so wrong about him, for while they may hate the Fox sealed within him for the lives it could take without remorse. He himself always felt the pain.

"Right, well we have the Statue we were sent to retrieve so lets quickly head back to Kuzaku Monastery. I don't really like the smell coming from the clearing and I'm sure you three don't want to be near that vile act any longer." Seeing the slow nods from her students in agreement she smiled slightly as they quickly jumped up preparing to leave. Although she could of counted on Naruto attempting to snatch the Statue from her carry sash, his curiosity obviously getting the better of him. Her response to his actions was to simply pick him up by the scruff and throw him over to the next branch.

"Awwww! Why can't I see it sensei? What does it look like?" Kurenai chose to just ignore his question before jumping to the next branch, her team following quickly behind her. And Naruto of course nagging her to let him see it continually as they left.

Kuzaku Monastery, lower bedding chambers

Daisuke's eyes flicked slightly with exhaustion, his long and dirty robes dragging along the ground and passing a shadowed visage along the stone flooring from his bedside candle as he walked over to his resting place. A certain… forlorn and confused expression the only visible sign of emotion on his face.

**Flashback**

'_Uzumaki-san was right, your mother would be disappointed with your actions Daisuke-kun.' _Kiharu_ said in a gentle tone to the broken boy before him. Small tears dropping could be easily seen as the boy looked up at him._

'_Your mother loved her duty as Guardian, she told me on many occasions on how proud she was to be the one to protect this monastery and the village. But out of everything in this world she loved you the most Diasuke, you haven't been the only one to lose someone dear to them, there are many others, some that have probably lost them in a harsher way then even Uzumaki-san. At the very least your mother died doing something she loved, protecting others, a trait I know she would have loved to see you continue. You have to live for her, __**and**__ for what she stood for.' _Kiharu_ figured he had by now said enough, and dismissed himself from his pupil with a simple pat on the head before leaving in silence._

'_I… I wont let you down mother, I will stop what I started… I have to be like you.' For the first time since his mother's death, Daisuke smiled. He smiled a genuine smile as his eyes lit up with fire, fires of determination._

**Flashback end**

Daisuke was brought out of his earlier memories by the smallest of vibrations sent through the stone floor, reacting on instinct and partly because of his current nerves he reached for his staff, already shifting into a defensive stance.

"Hehehe, you don't have to worry about that little wooden toy of yours kid. We just thought we should report back to you. Our mission was a… 'joyful' success." The dark voice seemed to echo all around his solid stone room, and Daisuke almost instantly found himself getting fearful. Not by the way the voice appeared out of nowhere, but more the murderous tone that was used, one that displayed all meanings of the words 'bloodlust' and 'malice' sending a cold shiver down his spine.

Turning slowly towards a shadowed area of his room, Daisuke's eyes widened when he saw a pair of black eyes and a maliciously evil smile glowing in the darkness created from the shadows of the torches along his wall. The eyes and smile disappeared at being seen, before the shadow shifted forward and began to warp and twist into a humanoid shape.

Two figures emerged from the gassy strands of shadow, there forms completing as they took a few steps closer, there menacing poses worrying Daisuke as to what they really wanted here.

"Your pathetic kid, what happened to that look we saw in your eyes last we met, such a glorious mixture of insanity and bloodlust. We were beginning to like you." Spoke the figure behind the taller one in a mocking tone, unsheathing his katana blade and holding it out, a sickeningly evil smile forming on his face at the frightened look that appeared on Daisuke's face. The cloaked figure knew it wasn't exactly from the blade that evoked such a look of horror, but more the fresh blood that freely dripped from the blades sharpened side.

"Hmm? Don't like the look of it? I would have thought you would have, after all… it's the blood of those that killed your precious mother."

Daisuke's eyes shot open in horror as he watched the plentiful amount of blood drip down of the blade and onto the floor quickly staining the stone and spreading through its cracks. He had forgotten… he had forgotten since his fight with Naruto that this is what he had wanted… he had hired these men to kill everyone who was at fault and caused his mother's death.

Scurrying back slight he felt back and fell onto his bed, Daisuke's mind already reeling at what this meant.

The front figure pushed his partner's blade to the side before stepping forward, holding his bandaged hand out as if expecting something. "Listen kid you hired us to do a job and its almost done, hand over the final payment and we will complete the last part and be on our way. We had a lot of… _fun_ the first time and we are eager to keep enjoying ourselves."

Daisuke sat motionless for a few moments, the horror of what they had done and what he had asked for slowly sinking in. His mother would never had done or wanted such a thing, he was just so angry, and wanted them to feel the hurt he felt so much that he didn't know what else to do. But still seeing the blood dripping from the back figures blade he could feel his fear and regret rise, especially when his mind slowly registered that they mentioned the 'second' part of the mission.

Quickly leaping back he pushed his bed forward almost a full meter, before reaching down the side and carefully lifting a small stone block up from its place in the floor. The two figures were slightly curious as to what a simple monk would hide, but there curiosity didn't matter to them when they watched him pull out three more sacks, knowing the amount of money they contained.

Daisuke pushed his bed back into place before walking towards the figures, his whole body shaking as he neared them, his mind almost overexerting itself with fear. Slowly nearing the three bags in the outstretched hand he spoke up, his voice weak, fearful, and croaky at best.

"Yo-you d-d-don't have t-to finish the j-j-job… J-just t-t-take your payment a-and l-leave. I d-don't need the s-s-second part done anymore…" Daisuke had expected they may be a little unhappy about it, but he never expected the outburst that occupied.

Almost instantly the figures seemed to darken even more in appearance, there eyes narrowing as they both lunged forward, harshly pushing Daisuke to the ground, ignoring the bags as they fell with him.

"We knew you would cower out of the job _boy_!" The front figure yelled at him, practically spitting the last part.

"You don't have the guts and we were even surprised that you payed for the first half! What's the difference who dies! As long as you get your revenge right? Weakling!" Daisuke reacted on instinct as the figure went to strike him across the face, pulling his guard up and thrusting a fist straight up, catching the overbearing figure directly in the gut.

His training was enough that he empowered all his attacks by instinct, he had enough 'strength' to brake through solid walls and crumble even the largest of boulders. So nothing could prepare him for the shock that came when the assassin above him didn't even flinch at the strike. And instead of striking Daisuke back, he just choose to stand up, his wickedly evil smile broadening as he took a few steps back, his hands flashing through a super fast sequence of handsigns.

"That punch of yours was a little different to the normal kind you would expect from a reclusive monk child. Let me show you, _my _different type hey?"

Daisuke could sense the very air grow cold, he could practically feel the water molecules in the air around him start to freeze from the sudden temperature drop. A huge mass of chakra could be felt emanating from the dark figure infront of him, and his heart was gripped with fear when he began to see small shards of ice form in mid air.

A large pulse of chakra was felt and Daisuke closed his eyes in preparation for the pain he knew would follow, but instead he could slowly feel the air return to its normal temperature. And he could also sense the presence of another person, the third person he hired.

"Brother! Do not sneak up on us, you could have easily been killed just from the fact you got too close!" Daisuke opened his eyes to see the two figures from before holding there blades against vital spots on the thirds body, while one of them clutched him by the throat. But to his shock he imagined the third assassin would have been even slightly frightened but instead just held a mildly amused smirk.

"Well if you were more aware of your surroundings I wouldn't be able to sneak up to you, _brother_." The third figure spoke, his voice holding a slightly darker and more sinister tone then the other two.

Although Daisuke hadn't spoken to them at length they each had something similar in there speech they made them seem identical to one another, if he was to give it a word to describe it, there very voices sounded of murder. Plus this was also the first time he had heard them refer to each other as 'brothers', he knew they hated each other as was evident at there first meeting, but were they actually related?

Releasing the third cloaked 'brother' from the grip he held around his throat, the two dark figures enquired as to his presence. "Hehehe… I have a small piece of information that you two may like as much as I do. I was staying behind to observe our site of… 'fun', waiting for the team from Konoha that had supposably come. It turns out they are just a new team, consisting of three Genin level ninja and a Jonin sensai."

The other two sheathed there swords as they rolled there eyes. Obviously not interested in the news. "And what is so interesting about a bunch of snot nosed kids and their sensei? They pose no threat to us." At his brother's statement the third figure just laughed darkly before continuing his explaination.

"Oh no, they certainly don't pose any threat to us. It was the sensei that makes the team interesting, its someone we knew quite long ago." The assassin's grin changed slightly at the intrigued looks his brothers shared, and it seemed to take on a nearly lecherous hint as he thought more on the subject of interest.

"It seems our little scarlet eyed princess is still alive, and is the team's sensei."

It took a few seconds for the other two assassins to realise what there brother was on about, but when they did they both stood up straight, a wicked smile appearing on both there faces. "Oh yes that is _very_ interesting news, but after so long how could it really be her? How could you be so sure brother?"

"It is easy to tell: eyes as red as a scarlet ruby and as piercing as a sharpened blade, hair blacker then the darkest souls of men, grace that is grander then the greatest of Kitsune. And as the years have gone on also a figure of a goddess." The third assassin smiled changed to more of a vicious smirk when he saw the glint in the eyes of his brothers. And as they slowly started to walk towards the rooms exit he followed them.

But before he could follow them out of the room he received an almost silent instruction from his brothers. "Do not let that _boy_ leave the room, show him, show him a replication of the first job he paid for.

Nodding his head in understand the third assassin turned to the still slightly shocked Daisuke, grinning evilly as he quickly flashed through a long sequence of handsigns. "It seems my brother's don't want you to follow us out. They told me to give you a gift, you paid for a mission and yet had no proof of its completion. Let me show you my greatest Genjutsu, its my personal imitation of the Uchiha Clans great Tsukuyomi Jutsu. But don't be fooled by it being an imitation, it is near enough for most anyone to agree it's the real deal." Daisuke jumped to his feet when he felt a large pulse of chakra emanate from the dark cloaked figure, he knew what he did was wrong, and he knew he had to atleast warn the Konoha team his village hired. He didn't know what they were on about or why they were so interested in the sensei of Team 8, but knowing what he had hired them for originally he could only guess it was something positively evil.

"Genjutsu Art: Realm of the Red Moon!" Daisuke leapt to grab his staff, but his hand and body froze a mere inch from it, he could feel his mind become heavy, and within a few seconds he could barely register that his body was falling down. Time itself seemed to slow down around him, but his mind seemed to realise every second that felt like they passed. The last thing he saw before the nightmare began, was the assassins face chuckling evilly, his vision slowly becoming fazed with red, it blurring more and more as a large circular figure was all he could see. All that was before his eyes before the screaming of horror started was a bright red moon amongst an endless black sky.

Team 8 knelt down before Kiharu when they finally returned to the monastery. He had been sitting in the same location as before, infront of the great statue. He smiled brightly as Kurenai withdrew a small golden statuette from within her carry bag and handed it to him, his aged face literally shinning with happiness at the return of the artefact.

"You did well Kurenai and Team 8, you retrieved the statue of the First Lord of the Land of Fire, the very statue that contains his ashes. You have exceeded my expectations as I hadn't thought you would retrieve it so quickly, you a truly a credit to your village." He was glad when he saw the smiles of pride form on the team's faces at his complement, but he wasn't so old and naïve to not also see the other emotions that dwelt within there eyes.

"Although something tells me everything didn't go as smoothly at it seemed. You encountered some sort of obstacle perhaps?" The genin of Team 8 just chose to remain silent, allowing there sensei to explain. Both because there were all still a little disturbed and because she was the leader and had seen more then they had.

"That is correct Kiharu-sama, we had one problem. We had quite easily tracked down the bandits that had raided your monastery. But when we actually arrived to there encampment we found them… to be completely slaughtered in the most inhuman ways possible. It was… just a little disturbing to us. And the thing that worries me the most is that they weren't killed and robbed, they were just needlessly slaughtered, we found the statue just lying amongst the corpses so they obviously weren't after anything of value."

Kiharu eyes narrowed slightly in both confusion and worry. It wasn't unheard of to hear that bandits had been killed, but it was increasingly suspicious when valuables were just left alone. And from what he could see written within Kurenai's eyes, she held a slight fear indicating that she either knew who the killers could have been or could be seriously worried for the safety of her students, or more possibly both.

"You seem to have an idea who the attackers might have been, do you think they could pose a threat to the village Kurenai-san?"

Pausing for a second to evaluate her answer, Kurenai nodded slightly before speaking. "I may know who they are, and if I am correct then the whole village and the monastery here might be endangered." Her voice initially was quite and a little reserved, but when she mentioned the possibility of the danger to the monastery and village her voice gained a strong sense of resolve.

"It is my duty to ensure the training _and _safety of my students, so we will departing as soon as we can as we have finished our payed mission, we can do no more." Kiharu's eyes opened wide a little at that, he knew that it was outside of the mission scope but the mysterious person/people that killed the bandits couldn't be a threat to even a Ninja team from Konoha could they?

"But, I can't just sit by and let a village within the protection of Konoha go unprotected. If I am right about who the murderers of the bandits are then they will have collected a very hefty bounty that is surely enough to more then cover the level of mission. We will be able to bring two or three Jonin teams to bring them down and defend this village if necessary." Kiharu smiled in relief at hearing this, it would be nice to know that there peaceful lifestyle would not be interrupted. But he wasn't known to be a selfish person and immediately thought of some sort of gift he could give in return.

"Your assistance will be most appreciated Kurenai-san, you and your village are a credit to the Great Nation of Fire. I will not allow such a thing to go unappreciated though, if you can ensure these 'murders' are either forced away or brought to justice I can pass on a few of our oldest scrolls to your village. Scrolls containing information on how to better focus your chakra within your own body, to achieve similar levels of training to the type we monks train with." Kurenai was quite surprised at his offer, such scrolls would be valuable beyond belief to even a novice Genin, let alone gifted to an entire Shinobi Village! She graciously accepted his offer before arranging the final matters that needed to be dealt with before she took her team home.

Barely an hour later Team 8 were walking through the town square towards its gated entrance, each of the three genin members quite happy about competing there first C-Rank mission. Although one particular member of Team 8 was restlessly standing on his tippy toes, his sensitive ears twitching and shifting to check for a very particular sound while his nose was searching for a scent he had to find.

If Kurenai didn't know him any better she would have thought he was like a small animal searching for food, but the fact that Hinata was helping him look for whatever it was he wanted suggested otherwise, and she was almost 100% sure what it was.

"Naruto-kun if you want to say goodbye to your little friend and her mother you can go find her, but please be quick as we must had back to Konoha as soon as possible."

Hinata giggled as her hanyou boyfriend literally exploded in excitement, his tails that were comfortably wrapped around her pulling themselves free, much to her disappointment, as he leapt away quickly following the scent he had found. She was sad that his close hold on her was gone though, she had quickly grow accustom to always having him hold her close and she always found herself missing his touch whenever he did something else. Shino however was just standing as still as ever trying to figure out some logical reason for his teammate's constant 'explosive personality'.

Kurenai had been feeling a little 'off' for a while now, and was fine with making sure she could still see where her student went, but a sudden deathly cold shiver followed by an unexplainable urge to throw up forced her to quickly call him back. The shiver was quickly followed by a weird foreboding sense of doom and she immediately expelled her chakra to cancel the sudden Genjutsu she could feel had started to affect her.

Without word or warning a pain filled shriek of a women echoed throughout village's centre square. The cry was quick and agonizing to the ears, but was quickly followed by silence.

Everyone in the centre square including Team 8 froze instantly and quickly looked in the direction of the scream and in an instant the village panicked, every villager running away, dragging there children with them as they quickly evacuated the area, screams of fright filling the once bustling trade centre as they all tried to run from what they had seen.

At the main pathway to the village centre stood three cloaked figures, grinning delightfully at the chaos they had so easily caused. The figure on the left stepped back slightly, allowing the woman he had just impaled with his blade to slowly fall her blood quickly pooling and staining the ground where she had collapsed.

The genin of Team 8 froze as they witnessed a woman probably a bit younger then there sensei just emotionlessly cut down, her life ended so easily and far before her time. It made a sickening feeling fill there stomachs, but nothing could prepare them for what happened as the woman fell.

The clocked figure smiled insanely as he watched his latest victim fall, the blood that pored for the hole through her chest excited him and he could feel his own blood begin to boil with the excitement and urging bloodlust. Wanting to see more of the brilliant crimson red he quickly flashed his blade across his victim in multiple places, causing huge gashes to open her body up and spill more blood across the ground.

The tallest figure placed a hand on his brother, silently instructing him to calm his bloodlust for the moment. Regardless on how amusing he too found it. Before he stepped forward to address the Shinobi Team before him, more specifically: Kurenai.

"When we were first offered a job to exterminate some bandits then some pathetic monks we never imagined we would see you again, while it was _fun_ slaughtering those useless excuses of humans I believe it is more fun seeing you again… Little Sister." Kurenai and Team 8 froze at the last two words, he couldn't possibly mean what they thought he did could he?

"How many years has it been? 10? 15? So long since we last saw you Kurenai-imouto… look brothers, our little sister has gone and grown up on us, even become a Jonin of Konoha it seems." The other two brothers stepped forward, laughing to themselves as they gauged Kurenai's reaction.

Kurenai, was, for lack of a better word: frightened. She had never thought to ever see there faces again, she thought she had been done with them years ago. But it seems even _her _past could catch up with her. Memories, so many dark and repressed memories came flooding back to her, memories of the three before her slaughtering so many people. Memories of them slaughtering her own parents, before slaughtering her whole town.

"What do you three want? You three shouldn't even be existing in this world!" Kurenai spat the last part, showing her utter descust at there presence before her.

"Awww how sad, it seems our little sister isn't to happy to see us after all. And after we went through so much back then together, I would have atleast thought you would smile at us like you use to. Don't you miss your big brothers?" He spoke with a demeaning term, trying to do a mock hurt impersonation while still seemingly having a vicous and cruel edge to his voice.

"I stopped calling you three 'brothers' the day you slaughtered our family! I have no ties to you three! Not anymore!" She was hurting, she could feel her heart contracting with pain as she spoke. While she sounded so sure and hateful towards them, she was bleeding inside at the memories. She could see her father's face, feel her mother's hold on her once more, all these images and feelings she had blocked away were breaking lose, breaking lose as she remembered the day she first saw those three murder in cold blood, they had the same deranged look back then as they did now. They hadn't changed at all.

"Get out of this village now! You will not harm anyone here! Shino, Hinata, Naruto get behind me, Tri-formation!" In an instant Hinata and Shino stop slightly back from there sensei, each drawing a kunai knife and standing strong. Although Hinata was completely disgusted and slightly in shock of the way they murdered that woman, and was shaking in fear. Neither her of Shino could believe what was just said, were these three really related to their sensei?

"Get out? Oh but we just got here, you see we were hired by a little trainee monk to 'return the favour they gave his mother' although it seems he pulled back on the deal when it came to wiping out the village, he seemed to have lost his streak for revenge, your doings perhaps?" Kurenai just sneered in response, but in her mind she was racing.

'_What? What are they on about? 'Return the favour they gave his mother'?... Daisuke! He hired them?' _

"Ah I see you figured out who hired us then little sister, well he may have reneged on the second part of the deal but we want to carry it out just for fun. Besides, nothing quite pleases and brightens the day like a good slaughter. Well you may have gotten better dear sister but you could never stop all three of us, we _will_ cut you down if you get in the way of our fun so I sugge-" The tallest of the three brothers stopped mid sentence when he heard an intriguing sound from the weird fox tailed Genin. Turning to him he spoke with irritation and disdain, his calm and slightly mocking tone almost instantly replaced with rage.

"What did you say _boy_?"

Kurenai didn't know what to do, she couldn't have her team involved in this, she knew the three before her far more then she ever wanted, she knew they would slaughter them all. They had to get away somehow. Her heart was racing almost as fast as her mind, and it was only when Naruto was addressed did she notice he was still a few meters from her, just looking at the ground with his hair shadowing his eyes.

"Naruto get into position now! Naruto! Naruto! Get back!" She couldn't move from her spot to force him to move behind her, they could just lunge forward and get Hinata and Shino, she didn't even know why he wasn't moving, was he freaking out like he did in the forest when he smelt the blood? But instead of responding to her orders all she heard was a mumbled something, followed but a dark foreboding feeling.

"SPEAK UP BOY!" Naruto shifted slightly when being addressed this time. Slowly lifting his head to look at the three brothers.

"You… You just killed her like nothing? What are you?... You were the ones that did that in the forest… You think this is a game? YOU THINK THIS IS ALL FUN?" His voice echoed throughout the village followed by nothing but silence as the three brothers watched the weird boy with interest.

'_No Naruto-kun, you will never be considered a monster until you can kill with no remorse, no feeling, or worse actually enjoying and finding joy in murdering.'_

'_It does become easier yes. But it never truly goes away, but if it ever gets to the stage where you can kill and not feel anything, then and only then, will you be considered a monster.'_

The ground beneath Naruto began to hum slightly, the rocks and pebbles near him shaking as the air around him began to 'boil' with heat. Heat of rage and anger, of pure and unchecked bloodlust and murderous intent. In a surge of power, Naruto roared to the heavens, his body quickly changing as his dark Yokai chakra blasted from him in waves powerful enough to knock over some of the merchant stands near him. What villagers still looked out from the safety of there houses cowered in fear at the growing evil feeling coming from the boy they could only see happiness from earlier that day, a powerful feeling of bloodlust surrounding the entire village as they could see red flames of chakra flash around him.

"**You… You monsters! How could you so easy take someone's life like that? I'LL TEAR YOU ALL TO SHREDS!**" Raging towards them the three figures could literally feel his powerful chakra blast towards them as he yell at them, there excitement extremely perked at the power and bloodlust they felt from him. The flames around him soon settled, but the evil and malevolent presence still remained, his growls nearing demonic as he slowly crouched to all fours.

Shino and Hinata looked over at there teammate with worry, Shino had never felt such rage from his hanyou teammate and was actually feeling fear just by looking at him. Hinata however understood Naruto's Yokai a lot more, and knew that he must be in so much pain for it to surface like it was, she could feel his hurt that fuelled his rage and was worried about his safety. Because she knew he was already too far gone to listen to their sensei's orders.

'_Please be careful Naruto-kun… I can't lose you…'_ She wished with all her love, before turning back into position, her Byakugan activating in preparation as Shino's insect began to filter out of his long jacket.

"I want him Idakai! He is mine brother, cant you feel it? The bloodlust is perfect!" The shorter brother sheathed his blade and stepped over the woman he had just cut, his eyes staring right into Naruto's now glowing scarlet red ones, his hands quivering with adrenilene. "Yes! This child is different! He is mine!"

The tallest of the three brothers just snickered at his younger brother's enthusiasm, although he too was intrigued by the young boy glowing with rage. Perhaps his weird fox-like features could be traits of a Jinkuriki? Or perhaps even something greater? Turning to Kurenai he could see the panic within her eyes as she shifter her glance from him to her student, it was a fright that he knew wouldn't be normal for her, it was a fright that he and his brothers brought to her by there very presence.

"Well Kurenai-imouto, it has been so long since we last seen each other. Lets see if you can stop us this time, or will you end up with another scar as a sign of your weakness?"

Kurenai unconsciously touched the left side of her stomach, a large hidden wound from the past lay there from there last meeting. She had hoped that it was there last, but she wasn't strong enough back then, she hadn't had the ability to stop them or hurt the people she once called family. But staring in there eyes and seeing there bloodlust and insanity she knew they were no longer the older brothers she knew or looked up to, they had completely be overcome by there dark desires.

"It was not long enough Idakai, this time I will make sure you pay for what you did! Naruto, get back with Hinata and Shino! Let me handle this!" Her eyes steel as she watched her once beloved brothers, her heart slowing as she cleared her mind and steadied her thoughts. She couldn't allow her students to help, they would only be cut down, she would have to use everything she knew to overcome all three of her brothers. But as she imagined the faces of her beloved parents she felt a certain peace and calmness wash over her, images of there faces smiling brightly at her giving her strength.

'_This time… This time I will not allow them to do what they did to you… mother… father… This time I will stop them.'_ Without even showing signs of any movement a kunai knife appeared in her hand, her chakra surging as she readied herself for the fight that was unavoidable.

'_This time father, mother, I will avenge you.'_


	30. Chapter 29: A Family's Blood Truths

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

**My good friend Moki-Yoki is now making a Manga adapatation of Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel! That's right! You can now read this story as a Manga!**

**She will post the releases on her DeviantArt account as they are made, the link to her gallery is provided in my profile.**

**Everyone visit her to see Curse of a Hanyou, Love of an Angel as a Manga! Subscribe to her Gallery to receive updates on her releases!**

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It has been awhile since my last release, but I was distracted by a very cute and adorable short story I was writing for my little sister. The story is now finished and all production time on this fanfiction has resumed. :)

Chapter 29 – A Family's Blood Truths

In a blast of energy Naruto took off on all fours, almost in an instant he had passed Kurenai and his team, running at speeds barely noticeable to the untrained eyes. Kurenai could do nothing but watch in horror as she saw her youngest brother move to engage her hanyou student.

Seeing his target race forward to meet him, Naruto roared loudly as he continued to charge forward, causing a shockwave of powerful chakra to burst from him, sightly staggering his opponent. Smirking viciously Naruto's clouded mind registered an opportunity to strike and leapt up into the air.

"**You will die!**" Naruto yelled in rage as he quickly approached his target, the sun behind him seemingly blinding the murderer he would strike down. In a flash of red light, Naruto slashed down viciously with his clawed hand, his eyes widening in slight shock at the blood that splashed past his eyes.

In his rage it took him a moment to realise he hadn't yet touched the ground, and in his shock his head slowly looked downward, his eyes widening further when he realised he was suspended in the air, the murderer's sword piercing straight through his chest and his hand effortlessly caught mid strike.

Team 8 called out in shock and fright when they saw Naruto impaled, his body just hanging in shock and surprise. Naruto had been much faster, but in his rage he had underestimated his opponent and the younger brother had simply moved at the last second, blocking Naruto's strike and ducking before stabbing him to the very hilt of his blade.

Hinata froze, dropping her kunai in an instant as she felt her heart tear itself apart at the sight. There was no way, no way that was her Naruto, it just wasn't, it was one of his Illusion it just had to be.

'_No… no no no! Naruto! NO!'_ Hinata felt her knees crumble before her as she watched the blood pool from the blade impaling her love, it wasn't him, it just couldn't be.

The younger brother gave an insane grin before bursting out in mad laughter, the sight of the blood that dripped from the wound of his latest victim made his inner bloodlust quell for a moment, but it surged forth again when he twisted the blade, causing the fox boy to yell out in a cry of rage and immense pain.

"Actually you brat, you will die! Another victim for me, Hidoukai!" Twisting his blade more his face warped into one of sickening delight at Naruto's screams, but that delight was soon changed to confusion as the 'fox boy' on his sword suddenly turned a deep shade of brown, before slowly starting to 'melt' away, the screaming silencing in an instant.

"A mud clone?"

In an instant he withdrew his blade from the pile of mud and went to jump away knowing he had been caught off guard. But he was too slow, as a tree suddenly grew infront of him from the pile of mud that use to resemble Naruto, quicker then he could even think to react it wound its way around him, its branches growing thick and binding him against it. A slightly sickening crunch was heard as the branches crushed around his arm, forcibly causing him to drop his blade as the bones in his arm were crushed.

Team 8 starred on in morbid fascination as there sensei literally disappeared from sight, only to appear not even a second later next to her trapped 'brother'. In one quick movement the kunai knife she held in her hand flashed out, slicing straight through his vulnerable throat, silencing his maddening screams forever.

Kurenai didn't even bother to look back at the 'kin' she had just killed, choosing to instead turn to the remainder of her family and watch there surprised faces contort with anger. "I said I won't show you any mercy anymore, you were once brother's to me and that prevented me from stopping you three before. But no longer! For mother, for father, I will end you three here and now!"

Kurenai's gaze never left her two remaining brother's, her steeled will and cold glare an unnerving sight to see on one so young and beautiful, an aura of killer intent surging from her as she expelled small bursts of chakra. She would kill them here, and after so many years her heart would finally be put to rest, her family would finally be able to rest peacefully.

Idakai and his other yet to be named brother could fell the power of the very presence there sister was making as she stood before them, glaring emotionlessly into there eyes. For just a short second there faces held a look for fear and could not look away, but that fear was soon replaced with a scowl as they saw the fox brat materialize out of pink pedals near his teammates, indicating that there sister had tricked them all with a Genjutsu, or so she thought.

"You may have gotten stronger _sister,_" Idakai spat, his use of the word sister now holding an edge of venom. "But you will never be enough to beat the three of us, your not the only one from our clan that inherited a gift for the illusionary arts!" Just as he finished Idakai and his brother clasped there hands together, sending out a pulse of chakra as they released there own Genjutsu.

Kurenai showed no signs of surprise when the third brother materialised next to her other two in a swirl of blackened rose pedals, she had already detected the Genjutsu and wasn't surprised in the least to find out the brother she had just 'killed' disappeared.

"No matter how strong you are in the Genjutsu arts, we will always be able to counter it! No matter your mastery you cannot stop three Genjutsu masters! Our jutsu together cannot be beaten!" In an instant almost like a rehearsed dance, the three brothers quickly began to flash through a long sequence of handsigns, chanting the names of the handsigns as they gathered they chakra.

Kurenai quickly recognised the feel of the chakra emanating from her brothers, the signature chill of power she once felt many years ago. Reacting on instinct she withdrew two more kunai, but she was far too slow to stop her brother's from completing there jutsu. "Genjutsu Art: Realm of the Red Moon!" The brother yelled in unison, before everything for Kurenai and Team 8 went blank.

Kurenai opened her eyes and gasped for a deep breath, her chest tightening as it strained for air. Her eye's adjusted slowly, almost like she hadn't opened them for hours, her body feeling heavy almost to the point where she felt her legs begin to give way under the enormous weight she felt press down upon her.

Looking around her with keen eagle eyes she quickly began to evaluate her situation, but when all that met her eyes was complete darkness she slowly tightened her guard. At the smallest flicker of light she spun around, a kunai instantly withdrawn from its sheath. Her eyes immediately widened in surprised when she saw the knife in her hand was completely black but she could see its existence by white outlines. Infact she was the same, she was also completely black and defined only by white outlines.

A cold and foreboding feeling washed over her as she looked in the distance, a large red moon rising out of the invisible horizon, she knew this jutsu. It was the ultimate genjutsu of her clan, the fabled Realm of the Red Moon jutsu, the only genjutsu in existence that rivalled the Uchiha's genjutsu Tsukuyomi in space/time manipulation power.

In an instant she felt herself disappear and the moon vanished. Before she even registered anything changing she found herself tied to a tall tree, and infront of her her clan's old estate and training ground lay. Many of her family member's who were killed so long ago went about there daily lives before her eyes, Kurenai remained silent as she watched on, not believing what she saw before her. But those eyes of disbelief quickly turned to horror as she saw some of her family cut down before her eyes, three cloaked figures weaving in-amongst the houses, silently killing everyone before them without any remorse.

A few moment passed and Kurenai could feel her hatred towards her brother's boiling, they were showing her this day just to spite her, they were showing her the day they killed her family.

"What's wrong dear sister? Don't you enjoy seeing our family again? Surely you must miss them after all this time?" A cruel voice asked behind her, Kurenai could practically hear his smirk as he spoke.

"Curse you Idakai! Is this all you wanted? Is this all you three murdered our family for? Just for this one pathetic jutsu?" Her questions were left unanswered as her three brother's just replied by laughing cruelly, there voices echoing throughout the entire illusion. In a blink of an eye all three of them appeared before her, laughing mantically as they looked into her raging eyes.

"Oh come now Kurenai-imouto, surely you miss them all. And considering we haven't seen you in years lets get mother and father here for a big family reunion." Idakai smirked as he glanced cruelly to his brother's and in perfect synchronisation they clapped there hands together once. As they did both Kurenai and themselves and the entire illusionary estate disappeared, leaving only the deep blood red moon lingering in the sky.

When Kurenai's eyes opened again she found herself in her family's old home, it was just the same way she remembered it down to the smallest of detail, the furniture, the fireplace, even the family dinning table was arranged exactly like she remembered. The only thing different was that everything was just visible as white outlines and that blood red moon was visible through the open window.

Unable, or unwilling to move, Kurenai found herself fixated at a picture of her family hung above the fireplace. A picture of her mother surrounded by her three brothers and she herself was sitting on her father's lap. Her eldest brother was not even 12 years old in that photo, and she was barely 5. Looking at the photo she could feel tears coming to her eyes as she looked at the smiling faces of her parents and brothers.

_'Was there really a time when we all looked like that? Was there really a time when we were all together... happy? Like we were in that photo?'_

Almost in response to her silent question a flicker of colour caught her eyes, and she pulled her attention away from the photo and looked towards the back of the room.

"Goodmorning my daughter, I trust you slept well?" A deep but gentle and caring voice echoed from the back of the room, and Kurenai froze at the sound, a small tear falling from her face as she recognised the voice.

"F-Father?" The voice of a much younger Kurenai was heard in response, without even realising it Kurenai had been changed back to her childhood self, under the influence of the Genjutsu she could not think straight, and could only follow the aching of her little heart. The thoughts of a little girl mixed with the emotions of her older self Kurenai could not resist rushing towards her father and wrapping her arms around him in a big embrace, tears streaming from her cute face.

"F-Father! Father! It is you father! I-I missed you s-so much father!"

"Missed me? Oh my daughter you can be funny sometimes. I have always been here with you, there is nothing to miss as I'll never leave you. Now come with me, we need to meet your mother at the main clan house." He replied in a kind tone. He had been on a mission for the village for almost a week, and he knew how much his daughter missed him when he was gone. But almost like a mockery to what he had said, he did leave her, just not in the way this young Kurenai knew.

Another loud 'clap' was heard and Kurenai, now fully grown and her own mind again, snapped her eyes open, the image of her younger self and father hugging burned into her mind. Taking a few steps into the darkness she felt a wetness on her face. Reaching up to it she realised she had been crying, that simple image of her younger self with her father had bought up more then a few of her buried emotions, and she cursed her brothers for there cruelty.

Another clap was heard and a whole clan estate suddenly formed before her eyes, the persistent red moon in the sky providing a dark light on a once bright and happy place. From what Kurenai could see the recollection of her past home was abandoned but as an image of her younger self holding hands with her mother and father walked out of there house Kurenai quickly realised what her brother's were showing her.

"No! Don't do it! I don't want to see this again!" Watching her parents and younger self walk towards the clan meeting house she knew what would happen, she just couldn't bare to see this again! The pain it bought her already was too much to bare and she tried to call out to them, to call to them and say not to enter that house, but it was merely a cruel recollection her brother's had conjured and she knew nothing she could say or do to change any events. And when the family entered the house another loud clap was heard and Kurenai's vision once again went black, but not before a horrible scream was heard from her younger self.

In a daze her eyes opened once again, she was barely able to comprehend what she saw, her mind was far to hazy, similarly to when one first wakes up so she soon closed them again not wanting to see what she knew was there awaiting her gaze. She had been forced to watch endless the death of her parents at her brother's hands, all the while she was trapped and bound to a large cross. She couldn't tell how much time had passed as nothing had changed in what seemed like an eternity. It was just the same repeated scene over and over.

But when she heard a familiar 'pant' nearby her eyes shot back open, her protective sensei side surging fourth. Her brothers didn't just trap her in the genjutsu, but also her team!

"Naruto! Are you alright?" She called out, expecting and hoping for a response, but all she got was a pant and an emotionally exhausted growl in response. Turning to the direction she heard his response she saw he was tied to a giant cross, his body and tails hanging limply against the binds that held him, he wasn't looking at her, but she could someone still see the pain in his eyes. It took her a few moments to realise that she too hung on a cross like he did. Hearing a buzz on her left she quickly snapped her head around, Shino and Hinata hung in a similar fashion to Naruto, both of them looking draining emotionally.

"Shino? Hinata? WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM YOU BASTARDS! LEAVE THEM OUT OF THIS!" Her purpose was to rid the world of her monstrous brothers, but she never meant for her team to get involved. They would be killed if they were forced to suffer more of this illusion!

Three dark and cruel laughs were all she heard in response, the sound echoed around her, mocking her that she was captured. She squinted to see through the darkness, but all she could ever see was that ever present red moon hanging in the sky.

"Come not Kurenai-imouto, you didn't honestly expect us to allow your little genin students to miss out on the fun did you? You know just how well we like our 'fun'." Kurenai spat in response to Idakai's words, she could practically hear his smirk on his face.

"Hmm, not quite the response I was after. Oh well, lets show your _precious students_ how weak there sensei truly is shall we? That you, the 'Prodigy of the Yuuhi Clan' was too weak to prevent the death of her own parents." Another loud clap was heard and a pulse of chakra quickly ensured, the last thing they heard before the nightmare began was the three brother's cruel and mocking laughs.

Young Kurenai was overjoyed to have her family together again, even though it had only been a couple of days that her father had been on a mission, to her it felt like an eternity. Happily standing between her two parents she could wish for little else in her life to be happy.

"Mother? Father? Where are my big brothers?" Kurenai asked happily, a bright smile on her rosy face as she asked her parents.

"They are in the clan meeting room waiting for us now my daughter. They were the ones who organised the meeting, they said they had a special surprise for us all." Her father replied, an excited undertone hinting in his voice.

"Yes I can't wait to see what they want to show us, Idakai-kun has been talking endlessly about how excited he is to show us all." Kurenai's mother added, a sense of real pride easily visible on her delicate and beautiful face.

Kurenai could only continue to smile brightly as she walked together with her parents, hand in hand. She admired her father so much, he was so strong and powerful, easily one of the strongest in there clan, plus he was even a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village! And her mother was the leader of the clan, she was so strong-willed and determined. Always making the best decisions for the clan and her family. It was always a promise to herself that when she grew up, Kurenai would be just like her parents, a strong genjutsu master like her father, and eventually maybe even become head of the clan like her mother. That's ofcourse if her older brothers didn't want to do it.

Finally entering the clan's main meeting house Kurenai eagerly pushed the door open for her parents and rushed in. But the sight that met her young eyes was not the surprise she had been expecting.

Blood. The floor was covered in blood, partially dismembered bodies lay strewn across the once beautiful marble floors. Kurenai froze, her body and young mind not fully able to comprehend what she saw before her. The faces she saw, they were all people she knew, people of her clan, friends, family. The entire room was covered with their dead corpses. Having no idea how to react in such a situation her clouded mind made her do the only thing she could do, scream, and run out of the house.

Hearing their daughter scream and rush passed them Kurenai's parents rushed into the house, her father running through first while her mother stopped for a quick second to check if Kurenai was ok. When both parents arrived in the main meeting room there reaction was similar to Kurenai's, complete shock.

"W-What? What is t-this?" Half expecting some cruel genjutsu Kurenai's father attempted to dispel it with his clan's best dispel jutsu, but it was to no avail. Plus the stench of blood was completely unmistakable. This was his clan and family.

"K-Kurenai! She's in danger!" Kurenai's mother woke up from her shock as her motherly instincts took over, whatever had caused this carnage could still be here, and they had left there daughter outside of the house!

Rushing to leave the room in fright of anything happening to there precious daughter they were surprised when suddenly the exit doorway disappeared before there very eyes. Being replaced with a solid wall. But the strange thing about the wall was that it was pitch black and only visible because its shape was outlined in white lines. Quickly looking around the room they realised the whole room had become the same, as did each other.

Knowing that such a sudden change to there reality could only be caused by genjutsu they both in perfect synchronisation attempted to dispel it, but again even with there best dispel jutsu, nothing changed. A sudden voice behind them attained there attention, a voice they knew very very well.

"Hello mother, father. Welcome, to the Realm of the Red Moon." The words shocked both parents and turning to face the young man they knew stood behind them, there eyes were filled with the vision of a great red moon.

Kurenai ran from the meeting house as fast as her little legs could carry her, the image, the image of seeing her whole family cut up, mangled, viciously dismembered it was too much for her little mind to comprehend. She could still smell the blood, the blood that covered everything in a once marvellous room. Falling to her knees she could do nothing but cry her heart out and hold herself tightly. The faces, she could see all her family's faces, burned into her mind like a hot iron. Her parents would fix everything wouldn't they? They were the strongest people she knew, they could fix anything. This was all just a bad dream, a horrible bad dream they she just wanted to wake up from.

"Kurenai-imouto? What's wrong? Why do you cry? What's wrong little sister?" A comforting and caring voice behind her snapped her head up, and in an instant she had turned and leapt into her oldest brother's arms, holding onto him for dear life.

"T-T-T-They a-are d-dead Idakai-neesan… E-Everyone… E-Everyone… T-T-The bl-blood was e-everywhere!" She managed to blubber out through her tears as she cried into his warm chest, her entire body shaking from shock in his hold. Her oldest brother would know what to do wouldn't he? He was always the nicest to her out of her brothers, she loved him so so much. He would be able to help and stop the bad dream.

"Shhh, shhh… It's alright, nothings wrong, it will be alright." Idakai replied with a comforting tone, gently stroking his baby sister's hair as he held her close and allowed her to cry.

"It's not what you think, you'll see. Come, come with me, I'll show you its alright." Letting go of his hold on his little sister Idakai slowly began to walk towards the meeting house. Kurenai tugged him back, urging him not to go, but he just gently took her hand and pulled her along, reassuring her it wasn't what she first thought.

Clinging tightly too her brother as he led her back to the house, her tears did not ebb, nor did her fear and shock lessen. She knew what she saw, and it was real. But her brother could fix it couldn't he? Or perhaps he was right and it wasn't what she thought… maybe it _was _just a bad dream or some cruel family genjutsu?

Half way into entering the main meeting room Kurenai's nerves shot, and she collapsed onto her knees. "I-I... I can't do it Idakai… I-I don't want t-to go in there." Kurenai began to shake and tears streamed from her young eyes like a river.

"Well you don't have to want to go in imouto, I'll take you there myself." Suddenly gaining a malicious aura about him, Idakai lent down and grasped his younger sister by her arm before viciously pulling her along, his steps turning into strides he forcefully dragged her along. Kurenai cried out in surprise and in physical hurt at the dragging, and by reaction pulled against her brother.

"Don't bother trying to get away _prodigy of the Yuuhi Clan_! I will show you TRUE genjutsu!" Pulling on her harder and without mercy he ripped her off her feet, dragging her despite her protests and pain filled cries. By natural instinct Kurenai struggled against her brother's superior strength, trying with all her might to get away from him.

This wasn't her brother, it _couldn't _be. Her three brother's were the most wonderful brothers in the world, and she especially loved Idakai, he was always the nicest and kindest to her, always helping her with her chakra exercises or playing games with her. This… 'person' who was dragging her was _not_ her brother!

"L-Let go of me!" She cried out, and in an outburst of fright to get away from him she kicked him as hard as her little legs could manage. Her kick struck true and hit the backs of his knee, knocking his leg from under him and causing him to lose his hold on her. Scrambling to get away from him as fast as possible, Kurenai jumped to her feet and ran for the exit of the house, but she didn't get far as the exit to the house vanished before her eyes, being replaced by a solid steel wall.

Despite her young age, Kurenai was well versed in the Genjutsu arts, a prodigy amongst her fellow clansmen, and could easily tell the traces of chakra on the wall to show it was a mere Genjutsu trick. Quickly placing her hands together she attempted to dispel the illusion. A quick burst of chakra Kurenai had expected the wall to disappear, but instead it just shimmered slightly before returning to normal.

A maniacal laughter behind her caused her to turn away from the wall, growing fear building in her eyes as she looked at her brother stand up. "You? YOU? YOU ARE THE BEST OUR CLAN HAS TO OFFER? How are YOU the prodigy of our clan? What skills and talents do you possess that the rest of us do not also have? You can't even overcome a low level genjutsu on your own, why do our parents always favour YOU if you are so weak?" Stepping forward to his little sister with eyes of murder, he struck a solid blow across her face, knocking her to the floor.

"What can you do that I cannot?" Before even giving her a chance to move he kicked her hard in the side, winding her immediately and knocking her into the wall.

"I am the oldest! And yet the clan is already talking about YOU as the next heir inline! What makes you so special?" Grabbing her by the throat Idakai lifted her high into the air, tears freely falling from her pain-filled face as she desperately gasped for air.

"I will show you just how weak you are compared to your brothers! WE should have been the ones considered for heir. ME, the OLDEST should have been favoured! I will show you just how strong we are!"

Lifting his struggling and sobbing youngest sibling up he dragged her by her throat into the main meeting room, the same horrid sight from before met her eyes, and she desperately forced them closed.

"You WILL see our power! Whether you want to or not _dear little sister_!" Placing a hand over her head he used a quick Genjutsu to trick her mind, forcing her eyes open.

"See? Do you not see? Everyone! Everyone in this clan was weaker then us! THEY ALL FELL BEFORE OUR UNBEATABLE JUTSU! A JUTSU THAT NO ONE SAID WAS POSSIBLE! SOMETHING EVEN YOU COULD NEVER DO! EVEN MOTHER AND FATHER WERE NO MATCH!" Throwing his younger sister toward the centre of the room, the laughter of Idakai and her other two brothers filled the room, there undertones hinting on murderous insanity.

Kurenai landed harshly on the floor, and gasped for the breath that had been denied her by her own brother's hands. Chocking and coughing it took her a second to realise where she had been thrown, the floor was covered in blood, her _families_ blood. Scrambling to her feet as fast as she could manage she almost threw up as the smell of the corpses infiltrated her nose. And having fell the way she did, the blood from the floor had stained her little dress, her hands covered in the blood of her family.

She tried to wipe the blood off, but it was burnt in her mind, and could see nothing but the blood that would haunt her for years. Her head snapped up when she heard laughter, but it wasn't Idakai's maddened laugh that frightened her, it was the laugh she heard from her remaining two brothers. Looking in there direction, she shook in fear at what she might see, her mind wasn't processing properly as it was, she was more running on survival instincts, but something told her she had to look. Seeing her other two older brothers at the other end of the meeting room, her heart skipped a beat from shock as she saw her two parents tied up, kneeing with her heads held low, breathing heavily with exhaustion. Both of her brother's stood either side of them, a knife at her parent's throat.

"M-Mother? F-F-Father? W-What have you done to them?" She screamed in fright, her question only answered by a cruel laugh. This couldn't have been happening, it was all a bad dream!

Seeing her parents in such a state shook her out of her shock a little, clearing up her mind enough to _want_ to know what was happening.

"Well dear sister they are simply recovering from our jutsu, even the leaders of our clan couldn't stop us! And still they think YOU were prodigy of our clan! Compared to us you are nothing!" Idakai said in anger, a tone of insane jealousy easily heard within his words. Walking up slowly to his still shaking little sister he placed a hand on her shoulder wanting to mock her further. But unexpectedly she turned and attempted to strike him across the face, whether by instinct or by purpose he didn't know, nor would he stand for it.

"Bitch! Try to hit me! I'll kill you just like I did to the rest of our family!" Reaching for a small blade he had hidden in his shirt a murderous and insane spark ignited in his eyes. And just by looking within them Kurenai could see his thoughts, he anger, his insane jealousy of something that wasn't true, but most of all she could see him, she could see that this was truly her brother. How had he fallen so far, and she not seen it?

Closing her eyes as she watched his blade approach her her young mind could barely process that this is where she would die, in a bizarre twist of life that had so quickly shattered the 'family' she held so dear and thought was so complete and happy. But her end never came, the blade never touched her. Instead, a commanding but exhausted voice boomed to stop her brother.

"Stop!"

Everyone turned to face Kurenai's father, still on his knees and his head hung low, but they could all feel his presence, the overbearing and powerful aura that literally pulsed from him. The aura of a trained killer, the aura of a Shinobi of Konoha.

"Do with us what you will… but let her go… you three, have betrayed this clan you have dabbled with dark powers you never should have touched… If your objective is to prove your power then prove it against me… let my daughter go…" His voice was weak, exhausted and filled with pain, both from the suffering he endured in that unspeakable nightmare of a jutsu, and from the suffering he was enduring now, from watching the three sons he loved so much snap so suddenly and his family destroyed.

Idakai however didn't see the broken father that was begging before him, instead, he saw a man who was uncaring to him and his brothers and still even now worried about Kurenai and favouring her. His rage sparked, and even his brother's held a look of fear in there eyes when they saw Idakai's face.

Dropping his sister unceremoniously on the ground Idakai moved like a cold hard killer towards his father, his feet barely touching the ground and his eyes fixated upon the man he hated with his very soul.

Kurenai's father could feel his son approach, and with the last stretch of strength remaining in him he forced himself to look up, to look into the eyes of the son he had raised and still loved even now. But he couldn't see his son when he looked into his eyes, for there was nothing, nothing but a dark black pit of hatred and jealousy, the look of someone completely consumbed by there dark emotions and driven mad.

Seeing such a look in his son's eyes he could do nothing, nothing but consider himself a failure as a parent to have not seen the angst building up in his own son. Closing his eyes knowing his end would be soon, he prayed for the safety of at least his daughter, a single tear falling from his face when the last thing he saw was his own son rushing to kill him.

Blood splattered across the room as Idakai viciously cut his father's throat with a swift blow. The crazed look in his eye only glinted with evil delight at his actions.

Hidoukai, who had been holding a kunai near his father's throat was a little taken back at his brother's rash murder, but seeing the blood splatter from the blade a few droplets splashing against him, he too quickly grinned in response. His excitement suddenly rising at the newest bloodshed, he could feel his own blood begin to boil from the adrenaline pumping through him, this notion of 'killing', of seeing his family before him suffer, it was such a refreshing and incredible feeling!

Kurenai's mother, who seemed to have suffered from the jutsu more then her husband hadn't moved the whole time. But somehow her mind knew what had just happened, and her body began to shake, a gasp was heard but not movement followed, only tears that streamed from her eyes.

Seeing his mother's reaction just enraged him more, she never cried for him. He had only ever seen her cry over Kurenai and her now dead husband. "WHO'S THE PROGIDY NOW _MOTHER_?" Idakai cried in a insane rage, swiftly curving his blade around and aiming for her throat.

His blade struck true, slicing clean through her throat. He expected to see blood, beautiful lovely red rivers of blood flow from freely the deep wound. But instead, his mother burst into sea of pink blossoms. Stunned at the twist of events he watched them quickly begin to circle around him at high speeds, covering his vision on what was going on around him.

"Oh? What is this hmm? Does our little sister now wish to try and stop us? You want to prove with one of us is the prodigy of our clan Kurenai? THEN SO BE IT! LET'S SEE WHICH ONE OF USE IS GREATER!" In a burst of violent chakra Idakai dispelled the genjutsu blossoms and stared in disgust when he saw Kurenai standing in the centre of the room, her whole body literally glowing with chakra as she flashed through a number of handsign sequences.

She didn't say anything, she didn't even blink, even as tears streamed from her eyes. She wanted to just curl up and cry her heart out, a heart that was bleeding with pain. Her family slaughtered and there corpses around her, her father cut down before her very eyes. What was she to do? A little girl that should have never seen such things. But it made her feel different, she could feel a force around her, a 'presence'. It felt like there were people standing around her, urging her to go on, to fight, to stop her brothers.

Finishing her chain of handsigns her hands glowed brightly for a second, before a forest of pink pedals arose around her. Spinning around her rapidly they quickly formed into little sharp needles, before propelling towards her brother.

Idakai could only laugh at the low-level genjutsu being hurled at him, simply raising one hand he dispelled the needle like flowers, but as soon as he did he found all his limbs bound tightly. Frantically looking at his feet and hands there were suddenly vines, holding the firmly in place. She had set up two illusions, and the wave of pedals was to distract him and disguise the second!

Three kunai flew towards his prone form, but he knew that his sister had yet to be given any weapons and knew they would be genjutsu, he would feel the pain as they hit him, but it would be false pain. Sure enough the knives struck true but knowing the inexperience his sister had with genjutsu that 'mimic and imitate' pain he expected the pain to disappear fairly quickly. Imagine his surprise when it was in fact the vines that disappeared, releasing him from there false hold, but the kunai remained as did the blood the dripped freely from his should chest and stomach where the sunk into his flesh.

Half in shock he pulled the knives from his body, throwing them with a clank to the floor, before turning to his sister with murderous eyes. She was a mess, and he was surprised she even had the concentration to pull of one genjutsu let alone two, and where the hell did she get the kunai from? Rushing for her with a clouded mind, he was set on ending her life there. But as his blade swung down towards he watched her quickly pick a kunai up from the ground, having once belonged to one of the clan members that lay dead around them, and used it to block his blade.

"Stupid girl! Like a pitiful trick will stop me! You are still weak compared to me!" Pushing down hard on his blade he used his superior strength to overbalance his younger sister, and used the opportunity to push her back before delivering a solid kick into her stomach.

Watching her slam into the wall and hearing her cries brought a delighted smile to his face, she was easy! The clan always said she was the prodigy, yet he had so easily beaten her! Turning from her, laughing as she gasped for breath, he slowly turned towards his mother, his two brothers standing next to her with equally murderous smiles. Nodding to them they both withdrew a kunai, readying to take the life of the woman who had given them life. They would have ended her right there, had they not suddenly been swept off there feet by a huge torrent of water.

The water appeared from no where, pouring from the very walls like a great waterfal, and quickly flash flooded the entire meeting room. Raging like a vicious dragon it crashed though the room, knocking the three brothers clean off there feet and smashing them around like ragdolls. Faster then they could recognise what was happening the room was filled, and they were left gasping for air, floating in a room of water that crashed around like the greatest of storms.

At first Idakai was insulted to have another low-level genjutsu thrown at him, he knew his sister couldn't imitate such levels of brain-wave altering and simply took a deep breath. But once again he was met with surprise when his lungs filled with water, a burning pain erupting from his chest as he felt himself begin to drown. Frantically thrashing around in the water he dug deep for his chakra to dispel the illusion. But the pain, the burning knife-like pain in his lungs from the water prevented him from gathering his chakra and holding his concentration.

Looking around in desperation, for something, anything to help him escape the illusion. His two brother's were useless, they two were swimming around helplessly struggling to breath. Despite the raging current of false water around him, he did notice that he wasn't held or confined, and was able to 'swim' through the illusion quite well. Struggling to maintain consciousness from the intense pain burning in his lungs and from the false lack of oxygen he saw the means of his escape, a single kunai knife that remained on the floor next to the bodies of his slain family.

Gathering all his remaining strength and willpower he forced his body to move, his lungs violently objected with excruciating pain that could never be physically described. But instead of immobilizing him, the pain fuelled his anger, and renewed his strength. Swimming swiftly against the current he reached out and grasped the kunai that lay on the ground, before stabbing himself deep in the shoulder. The real pain from the kunai interfered with genjutsu and he quickly felt it begin to dissolve around him. And before it dissolve completely he sent a burst of chakra to free his brothers.

The genjutsu had tricked there minds into believing they were drowning, and now there were free the three brother's lay sprawled on the floor, frantically gasping for the breath that they had be tricked into not taking. The pain from his lungs had stopped, but Idakai was still chocking for air along with his brothers.

Had they thought they had a chance to react, they were quickly proven wrong when three small trees grew behind each of the brothers, the branches rapidly growing and lifting them up, binding them solidly in place. Idakai could only yell in a crazy rage induced frenzy. A rage that skyrocketed when out of one of the branches binding him, grew his little sister a kunai knife in her hand. She couldn't have beaten him! There was no way she could have beaten him!

Kurenai looked at her eldest brother with eyes of impasse, an uncaring expression seemingly out of place on her face filled with tears. Looking down into her brother's eyes of insanity, she felt no pity as the knife approached his throat, he had done such horrible things. And the eyes he held were not those of the brother she loved so dearly.

The blade was mere centimetre from his throat when she saw it, a spark of life in his cold hatred filled eyes. In that instant she saw her brother again, she could see the fear, the regret of his actions, the anger and hatred seemed to have vanish and he had returned to the brother she knew and loved so very much, and in that instant she dropped the knife.

She hadn't been fully aware of what she had been doing, her body had just reacted on its own, seeing her father killed before her, her family laying at her feet. Her mother kneeling motionless while her brother went to kill her. She had just acted, almost like her movements and thoughts were guided but something else. But looking into her dear brother's eyes, she couldn't do anything by cry.

Idakai felt the blade near his throat, he originally hadn't ever thought his sister was capable of this, she was always so gentle and kind, so _weak_! And yet here she was, keeping him captive while she slit his throat. It couldn't end like this! He wouldn't die here! Not after proving to everyone he was the strongest! He was stronger then her!

He begun to see his life flash before his eyes, all the times he had spent with his family, all the times he spent trying to prove to his parents and the whole clan. All those times would be for nothing in but a few moments. But when he saw Kurenai just dropped the blade, he could do naught but stare at her in surprise. She just looked at him, her innocent face seemed to be horrified at her actions, and all she could do was look at him and cry.

Feeling her concentration on the genjutsu slip he seized the opportunity and dissolved the tree binding him with a disrupting burst of chakra. His sister's genjutsu was broken and she was revealed to be standing before him, the kunai at her feet. Emotionlessly disregarding the tears that fell from her face he lunged forward, striking her hard with a knee to the chest, pushing her back as she gasped for breath he followed through with a chakra-enhanced side kick. Sending her crashing into the wall once more.

Signally to his brother's to finish the job they had started he walked up to Kurenai while they stood beside there mother. Idakai lifted the young Kurenai high by her throat, careless to her struggles, he was far to enraged to care if she could breath or not.

"You… You are the one that the clan says is a prodigy, but it will never matter how strong you are at the genjutsu arts! Because you are too weak to do what needs doing! YOU WERE EVEN TOO WEAK TO STOP ME! AND FOR YOUR WEAKNESS YOU WILL SUFFER! I WILL SHOW YOU THE CONCIQUENCES OF BEING WEAK!" Turning around he threw his younger sister harshly towards his brothers. She landed in a heap, just at the ground by her mother.

Kurenai looked up, her fearful face marred with broken tears so out of place on a girl her age. Her face lit up with horror when she saw her two brothers stand beside her mother, evil grins plastering there face as they both held a kunai to there mothers throat. In one swift motion the emotionlessly cut through her, and the woman who had loved them all and brought them into this world fell lifeless to the ground.

Kurenai could barely see from the tears that filled her eyes and she reached out for her mother who lay mere inches away, a pool of blood quickly forming around her and staining the woman's once beautiful hair.

Idakai relished in the pain he saw in his sister's eyes, it was such a satisfying feeling to see her so weak, so vulnerable, so helpless. Walking to her he stood on her hand to prevent her from touching there mother. He wasn't finished making her suffer. Lifting her high into the air once more by the throat, he withdrew the kunai he still held and hovered it over her stomach.

"I still owe you from those three kunai before!" He screamed at her viciously, before deeply slicing across her stomach. He watched her eyes shoot wipe in pain and shock, a sight that was only improved by the blood that quickly poured from her wound. She cried out in pain, but her cries fell on deaf ears as her brothers loved the sound of her screams.

"And now! Before you die with the rest of our pathetic family we will show you why you are not the strongest! Why WE were the ones who should have been the prodigies!" Dropping his sister to the floor he almost laughed when she grabbed at her stomach, desperately trying to stop the bleeding and pain.

Calling his brothers over, the three of them begun a long chain of handsigns, and Kurenai even in her weakened and emotionally destroyed state could still feel the chill in the air there chakra made as they formed there jutsu. There very chakra felt 'evil'.

"Genjutsu Art: Realm of the Red Moon Jutsu! Goodbye _dear sister_. Enjoy watching your family die over and over and over again. We _won't _see you again."

With her brother's finally goodbye she felt the genjutsu quickly take hold of her mind, and the last thing that her eyes saw was the vicious smirk of her brothers, and the bodies of her parents beside them, before all was replaced with a great red moon. _'I am weak… I'm sorry Father… Mother… I… I couldn't save you…'_

Kurenai glared hatred at her brothers when the 'reminiscence' stopped and they appeared before her. She was still stuck to the cross, her team either side of her.

"Enjoy the memory Kurenai-imouto? No? What is this, tears? Oh I guess your just so happy to have seen our parents again that you are crying yes?" Idakai asked with a cruel smirk, followed by laughter when his sister spat at him in response.

"You are trash Idakai! The three of you are nothing but trash! How I ever thought of you as brothers I will never know. And you do not ever deserve to call Mother and Father 'your' parents! How dare you say such a thing after you MURDERED THEM!" Kurenai screamed at her brothers. There constant smirk was a curse, a reminder of there 'sudden turn'. And she cursed herself for being affected by the memory, seeing her cry was exactly what they wanted.

Idakai stepped forward, about to respond with another smartarse and cruel statement. When he was halted by a voice speaking softly.

"Leave… my sensei… alone…"

Idakai hated mumbling, it to him was a weak way of speaking, and he despised any type of weakness. "What did you say _boy_? Speak up!"

"**I SAID LEAVE MY SENSEI ALONE!**" Naruto's head snapped up and he glared death at Idakai, his eyes glowing blood red, tears flowing freely from them. His rage could be felt pulsing from him, his yokai chakra causing visible ripples of red around him.

"Or what _boy_? What could _you_ possibly do? You are trapped within the most powerful in existence, rivalling the power of the mighty Tsukuyomi of the Uchiha Clan! You can't do anything here!" Idakai had to admit, this boy was interesting. Such power emanating from him it was staggering. But sheer uncontrolled power could do nothing to him in this realm of illusions. HE was the master here.

Kurenai hadn't noticed before when she had seen him, but Naruto whisker-like marks had been prominent and his hair wild and untamed before. She had been so distracted by the genjutsu to notice he had been drawing on the fox's chakra the whole time they had been trapped. _'We can still use chakra! That's it! That's our escape!' _She tried calling out to him, but he seemed to 'at war' with himself to control himself to answer her call.

"Hinata! Can you use your Byakugan to dissolve the genjutsu? Or find a weak point?" Turning to her female student she hoped for some light in this dark situation.

Hinata turned to her sensei, tears falling from her eyes at having been forced to see such a horrible past of the woman who seemed so strong and secure. Her control over her chakra though was messed up, the genjutsu was messing up with her mind, and she couldn't concentrate or gather the chakra correctly. "I… I can't s-sensei. The genjutsu is m-messing with my control." Her voice was weak, evidence of her emotional exhaustion.

Kurenai cursed to herself at the explanation, it was a lot to expect of the girl but she could understand her difficulty. She herself could barely control her chakra easily. Then how was it Naruto could draw on his yokai chakra so easily?

"Shino! Your bugs aren't affected by genjutsu, can't they help?" Kurenai didn't know a lot about the Aburame clan, but she was well aware of there 'immunity' to genjutsu.

"Sorry sensei. They are not responding to my directions. The genjutsu is somehow blocking me from communicating to them. They are trying to remove the genjutsu's chakra from my body, but they can't keep up with it as the chakra is constantly being re-injected into our chakra networks." Shino was a little more in control of his mind at the present moment, he was still affected by seeing his sensei's dark past but he was coping with it in a different manor. His lose of communication with his insect companions however was a deep worry to him. Such a thing was completely unprecedented and he feared he would be of little help to his team.

"There is no point trying to figure out a way to escape, no one can escape the Realm of the Red Moon, it is the ultimate genjutsu!" Idakai found it amusing how his little sister tried to rely on others to help her out of his jutsu, it was just proof on how weak she is to him even after all these years.

Kurenai snapped her head back to Idakai to tell him to shut up, but before she spoke she noticed Hidoukai was visibly sweating as he held his handsign to focus the genjutsu, almost as if he was struggling to maintain his chakra to the jutsu. It was then that she noticed that Hidoukai was the closest to Naruto. Naruto's yokai was interfering with the control of the genjutsu! '_But how is he able to draw on it? His control is the worst I've ever seen...'_

'_Naruto-kun's body naturally produces very small amounts of yokai chakra. Enough to keep him alive and 'fuel' his kitsune blood. But his control over it is dictated by his emotions, if there are at an imbalance then so too will be his yokai chakra and normal chakra. Often in times of great distress his emotions become too out of control that he draws on large amounts of the Fox's yokai. He has done this a few times and his control over himself is limited. He is not a danger to those he cares about when like this, but we haven't ever seen how much of the Fox's chakra it is possible for him to draw on…'_

Sarutobi's words once again rang in her mind, a reminder of the dangers and powers Naruto possesses. _'If Naruto could draw on enough of the Fox's chakra, it would disrupt the jutsu enough for it to collapse!'_ Kurenai knew what must be done, but she wasn't really sure she was ready for what might happen as a result.

"You can do whatever you like Idakai! Nothing you can do can break us! My student's are far stronger then you ever will be!" Kurenai noticed the tick Idakai got on his face at her statement, claiming children to be stronger then him would have struck a deep nerve.

The three brothers began to roar with laughter. A sick, insane look of bloodlust appearing on there faces as they did.

"Oh really? This very jutsu crushed our entire clan remember! And since you saw it last, we have 'refined' our methods. Hidoukai! You know what to do! The _powerful children_ are first."

Hidoukai smiled viciously at the offer and slowly stepped towards the interesting blond boy, drawing his sword as he walked.

"No leave the boy, I think from what we saw when we were 'toying' with him before there is a better way to get at him. The girl is first." Idakai didn't like the girl with lavender eyes, she reminded him of Kurenai when she was young.

Nodding to his older brother Hidoukai turned away from the boy filled with bloodlust, and slowly walked to the young girl. He had to admit, she was quite the beauty for her age, and he would enjoy immensely watching her in agony and hearing her screams. Approaching the cross she was chained to, he grabbed her hair and yanked her up to face him.

"Hello little girl, looks like you are the lucky one! You are the first to bleed!" Hidoukai sounded almost 'giddy' with excitement and anticipation. His hands literally shaking imagining her blood flowing freely and staining her beautiful face. It would be a look he would remember for years!

"**LEAVE HER ALONE! I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU TOUCH HER!**" Naruto roared at him, a savage growl echoing around them.

"You can't do anything to stop me! I'll enjoy making your little girlfriend suffer! Might even have a little 'fun' with her after I have broken her." Hidoukai shouted back, a perverse smile forming on his face as he leant down to her, licking her on her cheek. Hidoukai only laughed in response when he felt the boy's strange chakra skyrocket at his actions. Oh this would be _so_ much fun.

Drawing back his blade he plunged it deep into her chest, laughing with insane laughter as her screams echoed around him. Leaving the blade where it was he created another one and thrust it a little lower then the first, this time twisting it delighting in her screams.

"**LEAVE HER ALONE!**"

Naruto's rage was beginning to peak, and each blade he saw thrust into his Angel only caused him to lose it a little more.

Kurenai felt horrible for using her students like this, she as there sensei should be the one being tortured. She was there mentor, there guardian, yet all she could do was use them to help them all escape. This was a genjutsu! _She_ should be the one to be able to break it and help them.

She was drawn from her self-pity when she begun to feel her skin begin to burn, the very air around her felt hot, and it was difficult to breath, almost like a great pressure was crushing down on her soul. Having felt this pressure once before 14 years ago when she first came to Konoha she turned to face Naruto, a look horror on her face when she saw his expression and his eyes. Gone were the blood red pupils that signified him drawing on the Fox's chakra, in there place his entire eyes were bright red, and his mouth hung open as if he was gasping in pain.

"**I'll… MURDER… YOU ALL! AAARRRRRRRGHHHHHH!" **Red wisps of chakra burst from Naruto as he screamed in pain, the chakra within him, the dark yokai of the fox was burning him inside out, but it was a pain that he didn't register. All he could see and feel was his Hinata getting tortured. Unbeknowst to him, the chakra was already weakening the illusion, melting the cross that he was chained by a freeing him from its hold.

"W-What is going on? WHAT IS THIS POWER? Hurry up you two! We must reinforce the jutsu!" The three brother's quickly jumped back and formed a line, rebeginning the handsigns for there jutsu.

"Hinata! Quick! Try and use your Byakugan!" Hinata looked up to her sensei with eyes of pure pain, the multitude of swords still sticking from her chest felt like nothing before. Yet as her boyfriend's chakra increased, the pain lessoned and begun to feel fake. Reaching for her chakra she could feel it respond to her almost like normal, and she quickly surged it to her eyes, activating her Byakugan.

The sight she saw was almost blinding, Naruto's chakra was far too much for her eyes to handle, the very light of the chakra hurt her powerful eyes. Pouring all her chakra and concentration in keeping her Byakugan active she forced herself to look past Naruto's blanket of chakra see the genjutsu around them. To her Byakugan eyes everything seemed like the normal world, they were still standing in the village in the same position as they had been when the genjutsu started, the three brothers each also standing in a line focusing the jutsu.

Looking at them she could see there chakra expel and spread out from them, wrapper her and her team like a cocoon. That's how most genjutsu worked, but it was a rather large ball of chakra hovering above her team that caught her attention. Deactivating her eyes she quickly relayed her information to her sensei. "Kurenai-sensei! The moon! It's the moon that prevents us from breaking the genjutsu! Because every time we see it it will recast the genjutsu on us! It is indefinitely recasting it on us because we always see it!"

"Excellent! Shino! I want you to find your companions and have them remove as much chakra from around us as possible, but _make sure_ to have them avoid Naruto's chakra, you know what happens when they eat his Yokai chakra." Shino nodded slowly to his sensei in understanding before trying to contact his beetle companions, to his surprise they answered and responded to his call almost immediately. "Right, now to end the nightmare!"

Kurenai pulled herself free from the cross, which had quickly begun to dissolve when Shino's bugs started eating the chakra around her, and flashed through a set of handsigns to perform her clans most powerful genjutsu dispeller, but this time altering the last sign, she wanted to reserve as much chakra as she could for the battle ahead and so altered the jutsu to use the chakra around her. More specifically Naruto's yokai chakra that was violently thrashing around.

"Art of Genjutsu: Disruption!" Focusing the jutsu towards the Red Moon in the dark sky, she pulsed her chakra outwards using it to destroy the genjutsu and to manipulate Naruto's chakra. It was a dangerous attempt, and she didn't know the consequences, but nothing could have prepared her for the pain the surged through her body as it attempted to capture and manipulate his chakra. To do it the chakra had to be forced through her body, she knew it would hurt, but this felt like liquid magma running through her veins, burning and melting her from the inside out.

Utilizing the jutsu and fuelling it with Naruto's stray yokai chakra, it didn't take long for the moon of chakra to explode, almost instantly dispelling the jutsu.

Team 8 stood stunned for a moment as there minds adjusted to reality, and Kurenai buckled to her knees as she tried to force out the remnants of Naruto's chakra.

Hinata and Shino rushed to check their sensei, making sure she was ok. Shino had seen what she did and thinking quickly he instructed his insects to remove the chakra from the surface of her body, something that quickly aided in easing her pain.

"W-What have you done? Our jutsu was unbeatable! It's the ultimate genjutsu! There is no way you co-" Idakai was immediately cut off as a blur of red flashed past him, a huge explosion erupting behind him.

Naruto's mind was clouded by his rage, and the fact the illusion had ended hadn't fully registered. To him, as soon as he saw Hidoukai standing, partially stunned by the destruction of his jutsu, he burst forward running faster then almost humanly visible and slammed his fist into Hidoukai's gut. The force and sheer power of the strike caused a large explosion and Hidoukai sailed back crashing straight through a villagers house. Naruto didn't even think to give him a second to recover and speed off on all fours to pursue him, blasting away the rubble of the house with a roar of chakra.

"Naruto-kun! Stop!" Hinata tried to call out to him, but it was to no avail, he had already disappeared. She would have despaired but his bloodlust and murderous chakra was easily felt, and the constant roars and sounds of explosions assured her he was fine.

Standing up slowly, Kurenai placed a hand on her two students shoulders before nodding to them. It was a unspoken message, and in an instant they were either side of her preparing themselves for the coming fight.

"You three will not get away this time, I will avenge our clan, and this will be the last day you ever use that accused jutsu!" Idakai and his remaining brother could only sneer at her in response.

It would end alright, but there was no way that three brats and there half exhausted sister could stand up to them. The Realm of the Red Moon was only the start of the fight. The greatest of there destructive powers were yet to come.


	31. Chapter 30: A Debt Repaid

**-SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE- MANGA ADAPTATION!**

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A rather large chapter this time... Large even for me. O.o

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Chapter 30: A Dept Repaid

They say the worst thing you can see in life is your loved ones killed before your eyes, that it tears at your very soul for all eternity, eating away at you till there is nothing left. There are those who suffer in the dark and eventually swept away by that same darkness. Then they say there are those that are able to see past the soulcrushing pain and grow stronger, they use there pain to ease the suffering of others and seek to better themselves. Then there are those trapped between the two extremities, not able to fully let go and not able to fall into the darkness. They are stuck forever, cursed by there own mind, and never able to recover from there loss. Those people usually tread the path of an Avenger, living there life to forfill one purpose: To destroy those who killed there loved ones, and avenge those lost to them.

Kurenai had never been one to allow herself to fall into the darkness, but she had never fully been able to let the memories of her family go. Looking over at her two brother's she was confused on what she should feel. One part of her wanted them dead, removed from existence and her family avenged, but another part of her just wanted to forget. She had been plagued by the memories of her family for years, and while she made sure it never impacted her advancement as a Shinobi, it had always stopped her from moving on with there deaths emotionally. And she just wanted it all to end, to forget everything.

Her confusion was broken when she heard Idakai laugh cruelly, she had grown rather quickly to hate his laugh. "Well, looks like Hidoukai has his hands full. That is an interesting brat you have sister, but he looks like he resembles more of a wild animal then a human. You have no control over him and he looks like more of a danger to you then to us." The insult to her student was typical of Idakai, his words were always cheap. Kurenai did notice that Hinata wasn't too impressed by what he said however, the young Hyuga Heiress actually looked to have taken offence to what was said about her hanyou boyfriend.

"H-He may be dangerous when he is l-like this. B-But he would _never_ hurt any of us! He isn't a-an animal!" Hinata shouted out, quite uncharacteristically. Even Shino showed visible signs of being surprised by her outburst.

"Hmph, please, the boy may have some powerful chakra and some weird fox-like appendages, but he is no match for Hidoukai. There are few alive who could possible beat him once he gets a thrust for bloodshed. But it is _so_ adorable to see his little girlfriend stand up for him." Idakai mocked back in response. He didn't like this strange pupiled girl. She reminded him too much of his sister when she was young.

A large explosion was heard a little ways off, followed by the sound of several large trees crashing down. A wave a murderous chakra pulse from behind them, followed by several more explosions. Idakai knew his brother well, and he knew that he didn't have any jutsu that cause explosions, was that brat seriously still alive?

"Alright, its about time we finished this Kurenai-imouto, too many years we have been looking forward to finishing you off. Ever since we found out you survived being sliced open and left to rot we have been looking forward to this day. As I'm sure you have too. So? Shall we finally see which of us is stronger?" Turning his gaze back from the forest surrounding the village to his sister, Idakai slowly began to step backwards, his figure starting to dissolve into thin air.

"Takashi, brother, take care of the pupil girl and the bug obsessed freak then go find Hidoukai and make sure he isn't having any problems dealing with that fox brat. Oh, Kurenai you might want to be quick, wouldn't want me to get bored waiting and kill a few of these villagers for fun now would you?" Idakai continued to dissolve into the air as he kept walking backwards, the last thing visible of him was his mouth, curled into his signature cruel and mocking smirk.

Kurenai ground her teeth when her brother finally disappeared, her training forced her to consider carefully on whether it was worth following him. She knew it was always dangerous to follow an advisari to a battleground of there choosing, but she knew her brother well enough to know that trickery in that sort of form would _not _be a display of his prowess.

"Hinata, Shino, I have to stop Idakai. You are both two of the strongest Genin I have ever seen, I know you two will be able to defeat Takashi. But please be careful, I am a terrible sensei to leave you two to fight on your own, but I am certain you will do fine." Placing a hand on her two students shoulders a smile of pride formed on her face as they nodded back to her. She knew it was a lot to ask of them, but somehow she just knew they would be fine.

"I'm sure you will both be fine, but if you need help you know what to do. Even if I can't help right now, as your sensei I wont allow either of you to be hurt. I will see you again soon." And with that said Kurenai stepped back from her two students, a look of worry plaguing her face as she disappeared in a swirl of pink pedals.

Hinata and Shino instinctively turned together to face there opponent, there nerves were obvious, this would be there first real fight, but they both knew they would be fine. They had each other to look out for the other, they were a team, and would fight like one.

The third brother, at last reveal as Takashi, stepped forward to face the young teens, a cruel smile on his face as he drew back his cloak revealing his bald head and hard features. "You two, will not leave here alive. Mere children could never hope to defeat me. My jutsu will _crush_ you both!"

In response Hinata and Shino stepped forward into there clan's respective fighting stances, Hinata's Byakugan blazing brightly while Shino's Kikai flew up from his coat beginning to encircle them both in a black fog-like cloud.

A loud explosion, followed by the cracking sound of many trees breaking was the only warning sign before Hidoukai went flying through the forest, slamming and breaking straight through each tree as his body flailed around each time. Slamming harshly in the ground he finally came to a stop as his body formed a crater where he landed. Groaning in pain and pulled himself up from the earth, using his sword to support him as he struggled to stand.

'_What the hell __**is**__ this boy? That murderous chakra! That gargantuan strength! The bloodlust in his eyes and voice! He is impressive! I will enjoy watching his blood run rivers!'_ Leaping from the crater with suddenly renewed energy Hidoukai dashed forward while wiping the blood from his face. Looking at himself as he headed back to where he had been 'forcefully blasted from' he took note of the damage the boy had already done to him, deep claw marks dripping blood, torn and tattered clothing, and a constant sting in every location he had been touched by the boy: burns from the red chakra that blasted from the strange teen.

Approaching the clearing he had fought only moments ago, Hidoukai prepared himself and lowered his blade as he increased his speed, the boy was fast, and that only made the fight more and more entertaining.

Naruto's ears twitched at the sound of his enemy approaching, and in an instant spun round and used his claws to catch the blade that would have cut him through. Looking into Hidoukai eye's he snarled in response, stepping forward before forcing his hands apart, his claws snapping the blade from sheer strength alone.

Recoiling at the lose of his blade, Hidoukai had too little time to react and could not dodge out of the way of the raging teen's clawed slash. Feeling the claws slice straight through his chest plate and deep into his chest Hidoukai howled in pain and rage. He reached out to grab hold of the brat, to hold him for a moment before striking him back, but just as fast as he reached out one of the boy's 'tails' wrapped around his wrist and held it back. The next thing he realised he was sailing through the forest again, the boy's follow up punch to the chest winded him completely and blasted him back just over 30 meters, once again being stopped by the hard ground.

"Ugh… I'm going to kill you you little fox brat! Your blood will run between my fingers when I'm finished with you!" Hidoukai yelled out in rage, cursing Naruto in all manor of ways as he struggled to sit up.

The boy's chakra was _very_ easy to identify and Hidoukai could feel him approaching fast, smirking to himself despite the pain it caused him, Hidoukai flashed through a set of handsigns, grinning when three copies of his broken sword formed next to him.

Naruto burst through the trees and leapt high when he saw where Hidoukai had landed, ready to slam a devastating punch directly into him while he lay almost motionless. He growled darkly when he saw him sit up, and reach for two blades that stuck out from the ground. Moving slightly to prepare himself to knock the weapons away he was completely unprepared to have them suddenly sail towards him. The two blades easily pierced his skin, stabbing right through him and sending him in the opposite direction from the force they flew at him.

Crashing harshly into a tree, the blades piercing him pinned him to it and he yelped loudly in pain. Starring at Hidoukai, watching as the murderous man pulled himself from the crater, Naruto growled before using two of his tails to pull the blades from him. He yelped again in pain at withdrawing them, but the pain quickly ebbed away as the Yokai chakra flowing through him quickly healed the deep wounds.

Turning towards Hidoukai Naruto's tails flicked out, throwing the blades back at him while taking the opportunity he willed the dark chakra to his hands, focusing it with several handsigns his hands erupted in a brilliant display of bright blue flame. Seeing Hidoukai forced to dodge the blades Naruto dashed forced, quickly launching his jutsu.

"**Kitsune Art: Fox Fire Jutsu!**"

The mythical blue flames burst forward from his hands, a cone of searing heat and destruction was launched right at Hidoukai. The flames quickly engulfed him, and Naruto could only grin at his enemy's screams. His chakra surged forward as Naruto continued to power his specialty jutsu, the cone just continuing to grow hotter and hotter till he begun to noticed nearby trees were catching on fire from the temperature alone. But in his rage his mind was clouded, his actions were delayed, he wanted only to destroy the disgusting man who had hurt his Angel.

In an instant Naruto's jutsu stopped, his eyes shooting wide as his body registered pain, and a lot of it. Slowly looking down, he saw three swords sticking through him, each at a different angle. Looking upwards he saw Hidoukai appear before him in a burst of smoke, perfectly unharmed by his jutsu. Partly from the surprise of the attack and the shock of abnormally intense pain, Naruto could only buckle before him.

Hidoukai smirked when he saw his genjutsu take hold of the fox brat, the blades were his specialty, blades made from his genjutsu that induced ridiculous amounts of pain to whoever they struck. Apart from that he could also mix in his own real swords at random, forcing his enemies to dodge each sword just incase it wasn't a genjutsu. But being able to randomly make the blades appear in thin air made his jutsu even more deadly and confusing. Taking this opportunity to attack he quickly unloaded a volley of quick strikes on the boy before blasting him away with a chakra enhanced punch.

Not wanting to let his assault finish so quickly Hidoukai quickly performed the handsigns for his specialty genjutsu, forming 8 blades hovering in the air around him. Bringing his hands together the blades shot forward, seeking there target.

Using his tails for balance Naruto flipped backwards and landed on his feet, the blades that he struck through him had vanished into nothing, and even his current clouded mind could somehow understand they were genjutsu. Quickly noticing the oncoming blades Naruto roared in rage, blasting huge shockwave of chakra from his body, the Yokai easily dissolved the illusion. But to Naruto's surprise, two of them didn't vanish, and sailed straight through him.

Yelping in pain Naruto thrashed in a rage as he pulled the blades from his body viciously. He would have charged forward, his intent to kill his opponent was there, but his body quickly begun to feel 'heavy'. His movements slowed and the world around him seemed to drift and blur before his eyes. Exhaustion flooded his body and against his will his hands dropped the two swords, his eyes drooping as his whole mind begun to spin. His whole body started to ache and deep within him he heard a cruel and dark laugh.

'_**Heh heh heh, foolish boy!... You can't just keep taking MY chakra and expect me to be ok with it! Your body is too weak to resist using my chakra!... But I won't allow it! IT. IS. MINE!**__'_

Naruto only had the 'pleasure' of meeting his prisoner a few times, and each time it whinged and bitched about how he was taking its chakra. But this was the first time Naruto had ever felt the fox having this sort of control, it was as if the flow of time itself was reversing, all of Naruto's energy seemed to just be drawn within him, being locked away from his use.

Falling to the ground in a heap, Naruto's blood red eyes reverted back to his usual blue with red rims. Blood dripped from the sword through his stomach, and his healing rate returned to normal and as such the wound did not heal immediately. Having such a huge amount of power forcefully taken away from him was beyond painful, and Naruto knelt to try and keep himself from fainting. His eyes shot wide though when his ears picked up on a sound, pure fear clutching at his heart. He was defenceless, unarmed and unable to move before an enemy, would this be his end?

"Well it seems your wonderful chakra has finally stopped! I have no idea how you have such a powerful, bloodthirsty chakra but I will make sure to pay you back a thousand fold for each time you hit me while using it!" Hidoukai said while stepping through the forest into the small clearing, quickly grabbing the fox brat by his throat he was surprised at how 'limp' the boy felt. But it was a detail that didn't bother him, for here was where his fun would start.

Hinata and Shino watched there opponent carefully, studying him while he simply stood motionless smirking at them. Shino used the silence and lack of battle to carefully hide a number of his insect companions in the ground beneath them, it wasn't a difficult task to do, he simple had them burrow directly behind him the length of his coat providing the cover they needed.

"Well well well, I would have never thought I would have ever had the opportunity to fight not one but _two_ of the clans from the 'great' Village Hidden in the Leaves. A Hyuga, and an Aburame. Both well known for there prowess in combat and for there resistance to genjutsu. The Hyuga's Byakugan Eye allows them to simply see through all illusion, while the Kikai of the Aburame clan filter out foreign chakra from there host." Takashi seemed to take a sort of amusing pleasure in seeing the slightly surprised look on the two teen's faces.

"Oh don't look so surprised. Both of you should know that your clans are well known outside of your village, the Shinobi of other lands would be foolish to not be able to recognise the traits of powerful clans. Particularly if they possess a Bloodline trait like you do… 'Hinata' was it? Yes… I shall enjoy crushing you both. I can easily destroy you both without the need for Genjutsu, and after I do, I will take those eyes of yours _Hinata_. For a genjutsu master to be able to dispel and dissolve any Genjutsu just by sight is a gift too great to pass up." He mocked with a cruel smirk before slowly stretching his muscles.

Hinata was a little shocked by what he said, it was true the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan Eyes were most sort after, it was the reason the Branch family had the Curse Seal on them. So that when they died in battle the Seal would activate and seal there Byakugan so it couldn't be taken from there corpse. However, the Main House was _never_ suppose to lose in combat, and so as a sign of superior skill the Main House was never given the Curse Seal. But without the Curse Seal, it meant that the Main House was often targeted just so someone can get there hands on the Byakugan.

The thought of someone removing her eyes from her was a horrifying one, and it took her back a bit that this opponent would be fighting to kill her, eager for her eyes.

Takashi noticed the look in the young Hyuga's eyes and dash forward, it was the precise effect he was hoping it would have on her. Quickly covering the distance between them in a flash, he stopped just before the two teens and smashed the ground with a surprising amount of strength.

"Earth Style: Shards of Earth Jutsu!" Takashi called out as his fist struck the ground. In an instant the earth before him shattered and hundreds of small sharp pieces blasted up towards Hinata and Shino.

Hinata may have been unnerved by his statement, but her eyes had seen the chakra within him being manipulated, and was more then ready for his jutsu. As the rock shards flew towards her she simple struck each of them down, and Gentle Fist burst of chakra easily shattering them all before they could hit her.

Shino was a little less prepared but it was relatively easy for him to dodge them or deflect with a kunai. His Kikai aided him by flying under and around the shards, enough of them enabled them to alter the trajectory path away from there host.

After the volley of sharp rocks had stopped Hinata and Shino quickly took the offensive, running forward Hinata was first to approach Takashi, and quickly struck out with fingered Gentle Fist strikes, she had seen the way he manipulated the chakra for his jutsu, and while it was surprising to see him use an Earth Style it wouldn't last long as she knew exactly how to shut off his chakra. Her two initial strikes were simply pushed aside, with surprising force by one hand that almost overbalanced her. But using her superior flexibility she quickly spun around and underneath his arm and followed through by slamming her open palms solidly into his chest. But instead of the expected effect Hinata was surprised when he grabbed hold of her arms.

Shino struck straight after his teammates strike, a few quick taijutsu punches followed by a roundhouse kick aimed at the head. But Takashi simply halted the punches with his open hand before catching Shino's leg.

Having caught both of the Genin he stepped back before using his amazing strength to hurl them away like they were nothing. Hinata and Shino crashed hard into a nearby merchant cart, destroying it completely from the force they were thrown at it. While the pain was excruciating they both were up as soon as possible, knowing that Takashi would attempt to strike while they were down.

Sure enough Takashi appeared before them in an instant, his large body appearing a lot bigger then it had just shortly before, his muscles seemed to be bulging and constricting, literally growing before there very eyes. In a swift strike he swung downwards, only barely missing the two Genin when they were lucky enough to dodge out of the way of his huge fist.

The ground where he struck literally exploded, shards of rock and debris flying everywhere barely missing Shino and Hinata. When the dust cleared it showed Takashi standing in the middle of a huge crater just looking at them mockingly. Shino and Hinata had used the time waiting for the dust to clear to get some distance, and Hinata was able to safely analyse her opponent with her Byakugan.

She watched in awe at the way the chakra in his body circulated, its flow was warped, pumping throughout his system like nothing she had ever seen. It was flowing so fast that she could barely see it moving. Far faster then she had ever seen Naruto's flow. And it all seem to be injecting into his muscle tissue, strengthening and growing them at exponential rates. Such a thing should have been impossible! The brain would limit such chakra abuse as it was extremely damaging and dangerous to the body! It was then that she noticed the chakra around his brain, there was the usual present chakra, but there was also another source. The source it was 'controlled' and specific in function and was similar to how one would be affect if they were under a genjutsu.

"W-Wait! Your using a g-genjutsu on yourself!" Hinata cried out, quite in surprise having never seen anything so strange.

"Impressive isn't it?" He asked while flexing his arms, which had been turned into huge bulging muscles. "This is my creation, a genjutsu that influences oneself, affecting and tricking the mind into releasing its restrictions on the chakra network. Its similar to the techniques used by Taijutsu masters where they open the Eight Chakra Gates, only my gates stay closed while my mind and chakra network is 'released' from its restrictions whereas with the Eigh Gates their body and chakra is released. It allows me to force chakra around and to various parts of my body like no other!" Takashi boasted, laughing mantically while flexing his still bulking body.

Hinata would be terrified _if_ there opponent was _also _able to open the Eight Chakra Gates, because while he was able to 'release' his brain from the restrictions it holds on such dangerous chakra manipulation, he hadn't increased his chakra itself or released the restrictions on his muscles. That was only something the Eight Gates could provide and while it would probably do extreme damage to his body, if he was able to utilize the Eight Gates also then this battle was over. The one useful piece of information though was that without the Eight Gates, his chakra was the same levels as any other Shinobi. Meaning her teammates beetle companions would be very helpful in disarming there opponent.

The other major problem was he was an Earth Style user too. The reason her strikes hadn't done anything to him was because he had encased his entire body in a thin but strong layer of rock.

"Hinata-san, what do you see. What is he doing?" Shino asked urgently, he could see the worry in her eyes and knew already from the very instant there opponent used an Earth Style Jutsu that they were outclassed. They needed a plan, and fast or they would not survive.

Hinata looked at her teammate in slight worry, but resumed her families stance while watching Takashi approach, not wanting to reveal to the enemy what she had discovered she passed on her information through signal handsigns.

'_Hmm… interesting. That is a dangerous thing to do to ones body, but if what Hinata-san says is true we might still have a chance, we just need to figure out how to get passed that armour.' _Thinking quickly to himself he spoke to his companions within him, instructing them with a future set of instructions. He only hoped they could survive long enough to break that armour, otherwise there was nothing they could do.

After her instructions were relayed she nodded to Shino for confirmation and at his nod they both charged forward again.

"Oh? Still willing to try and take me on? You two have guts I'll admit that, but you are also both fools. Nothing can stop my jutsu!" In a show of strength and superiority he flexed his muscles before them, laughing with insanity when they only grew once more. Seeing the two genin rush for him he quickly moved his hands together flashing through a series of quick handsigns. "Die tiny genin! Earth Style: Mud Vortex Jutsu!"

Sharp eyes darted quickly through the forest foliage. Carefully analysing and watching for any signs of movement. The slightest uncaught feature, the smallest missed detail can very well mean death for a high level shinobi battle. It was times like this when Kurenai would appreciate the assistance of her students. While she herself was more then capable of such high level fights, have the ability to see for miles around her, or hear and smell her opponent, or deduce his location with insects that searched for her would be a great boon.

But alas she was not gifted with such traits, instead her talents all lay in the genjutsu arts. And while not good at finding an advisari, they were incredibly useful for 'luring them out'. A quick flash of handsigns and the world around Kurenai rippled slightly, before returning to normal, it was a small flicker at most, but its affect would be monumental.

She had thought of perhaps performing a few others but this one she felt suited the situation. Taking a quick glance around Kurenai smirked when she felt her brother's presence. He may have advanced since there last encounter, but she was the one who would be the victor here, she would avenge her family.

A multitude of bright sparks erupted through the trees followed by the distinct sound of metal against metal. The moment Kurenai took a step forward after her genjutsu she had been being bombarded by more Kunai they she could ever imagine, the whole floor was covered with them. Kurenai on instinct had withdrew a kunai and had begun to deflect what she could, but even then the sheer magnitude of the waves of kunai was immense, and she could never block such an amount.

Hundreds and thousands of Kunai hailed down upon her, and dozens struck her and sunk deep in her flesh, the pain was immense, each blade hurting like they were piercing down to the bone. Not caring stop the rest Kurenai just placed her hands together and in an instant the kunai flashed and changed to cherry blossoms. Changing from a hail of death to a veil of flowers.

"You will need more then that brother!" She called out, her wounds caused by the fake kunai disappearing as they did.

"**Oh? I don't have to try much more, that was only the beginning.**" Idakai's voice echoed loudly around her, and seemed to carry a darker undertone even for him.

In a flash Kurenai spun around, sparks flying as her kunai clashed with her brothers. He had appeared behind her so suddenly and when she met his gaze she couldn't hold back the shiver from the bloodlust she could see within, his gaze was the epitome of sickening.

Attempting to rid herself of the sight of his face, she struck out with her fist, and quickly following it up with a roundhouse kick when he caught her hand. But as her kick struck, his body turned into mud, which quickly erupted and wrapped around her, holding her in place.

Idakai appeared infront of her in a flash, quickly retrieving a kunai from his holster he ran up to her and in an instant slashed the blade through her throat. Blood poured from the fatal wound, and Idakai momentarily lost himself in the morbid fascination of watching his sisters blood run. But it didn't last forever, as the blood that fell from her quickly disappeared into this air when Kurenai's body simply dissolved into a volley of pedals.

"This is starting to get repetitive imouto! Don't you have better ways of fighting?" In response to his aggravated demand she appeared behind him, her leg whipping out and slamming into the side of his head. She had not been prepared for the side of his head to have turned into long knife however, and she resisted the urge to scream in pain as the genjutsu knife cut straight through her leg.

She recoiled from the attack, and lent to the side to relieve the pain surging through her leg. It was all false pain, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell.

"Come-on imouto! That was pathetic! You should have known I would be ready for such an attack!" He mocked with a displeased scowl. He had thought his sister was better then this. He wanted a REAL fight! Not this disgustingly pathetic one! How would he prove to her who was better when it was so obvious?

Kurenai just glared at her brother before undoing the damage of the genjutsu by simply dispelling it from her system. But, what she made sure her brother didn't see was that she added a few more handsigns to the dispel, the same set of handsigns she had been secretly sneaking in since she arrived in the forest.

"I did know you were ready, I expected such a result. Now, let us finish this!" Kurenai yelled as she reached for her kunai and charged forward, an action mimicked by Idakai.

She would avenge her family, one way or another, she would kill her brothers this day.

Naruto tried desperately to struggle against Hidoukai as he was lifted up by his throat, the grip was strong, far stronger then anyone had ever held him before, Hidoukai was literally crushing his throat, he couldn't speak, he could breath, and worst is he couldn't even stop him. He tried to force his tails ups, for any of them to reach up and grip the hand that were crushing him and force it to let go. But alas they didn't move, his most powerful and strong limps were dead to his will, nothing of his body worked, his body was completely drained of any energy he had never before felt so… 'empty'.

'_Curse you you bastard fox! You ruined my life! And killed so many! You will NOT kill me!'_ Naruto screamed within his mind, but his only reply was the foxes deep chuckling.

"So, any last words fox brat?" Hidoukai yelled mocking as a sword materialised in his hand, and Naruto could tell this one was real. "You put up quite the fight but it seems your wonderful chakra was the only reason you could do anything! And that seems to have some drawbacks too! I will enjoy making you bleed before me!" Hidoukai Screamed with an insane laugh, clearly enjoying this turn of events far too much he drew his blade high ready to strike and slice Naruto's head clean off.

Time seemed to slow down around Naruto as his keen eyes watched the blade approach, his mind drifted to many things in those short seconds, to his childhood remembering all the harsh treatments of the villagers, to when he first met Hinata, to images of his mother and of his sisters. Images of Sarutobi, of the village, of Teuchi and Ayame at his favourite ramen stand, of his time with his friends at the academy, to his first missions in the village. These images flashed before his eyes quicker then Naruto could comprehend, and in those split seconds of life before his death, a tear shed from his face when he realised he would be leaving behind the one he loved, he would be leaving his Angel alone.

'_**Heh heh heh… foolish boy… such a pitiful life you have and to remember so much of such a terrible existence in such a short time… but you don't have to worry about leaving your precious 'Angel'. I don't want to die just as much as you! So get rid of this weakling! It's an embarrassment to have my jailor so weak and pathetic that he can't even defeat such a worthless human…'**_

Naruto hated that he could hear the bastard fox, usually he had to be in his own subconscious to converse with the beast, but hearing his cruel and vicious tone echoing in his head was torture. But when the fox finally shut up Naruto felt a surge of power return to his body, it wasn't the fox's yokai chakra, just his own normal chakra network returning to his control.

His natural strength having returned once more he was able in a solid quick movement turn his head, catching the blade skilfully with his powerful jaw he easily snapped the blade clean through with his sharp fangs. Before Hidoukai even had a chance to respond Naruto quickly used his tails to pry the bastards grip off his neck before lunging forward.

"This is for Hinata-chan!" Naruto yelled with vengeance before slamming his fist into Hidoukai face's. A sickening crunch was heard when the sheer strength of the punch literally shattered his checkbone. But Naruto was far from finished. The tail still wrapped around his hand pulled him back, halting him from flying back from the impact of the punch and straight into Naruto's clawed strike, severing straight through his throat.

Naruto landed and coughed up a little blood, the blade that was still lodged in his chest had moved slightly after his attack and hurt almost like it was his own throat that got ripped open. Yelping and whimpering in pain, Naruto carefully removed the blade with a tail, and used another two tails to snap the thing in half. The wound began to heal, but Naruto would definitely have wanted it to heal faster.

But it didn't matter, he had won, he had defeated his first real opponent and as the realisation of that accomplishment set in, a smile of pride appeared on his foxy face. He turned his head slightly and attuned his ears, they twitched every slightly while he scanned for sounds of battle. He had over time learnt to paint mental pictures of his surroundings just by sound, and so he could tell that his team wasn't far. Although he couldn't hear any sign of his sensei.

A secondary sound that he wasn't particularly listening for caught his attention, and Naruto barely had a second to dodge the blade that flew straight for his head.

Immediately focusing his attention back to his local area Naruto scanned for Hidoukai. The 'body' lacking a head had seemingly turned into a log with its top half removed, telling him that Hidoukai had used a substitution at the last second. And only a few meters from the treelines Hidoukai stood. But this time he had a different look on his face, gone was the crazy and murderous persona and in its place a man a solid steel will stood before him.

"You brat! No one has forced me to take such close measures just to save my head from be ripped off my shoulders! It's an insult that a mere genin is able to get close to besting me! I wont allow it!" Screaming at Naruto in unbridled hatred and rage, Hidoukai flashed through a rather long series of handsigns, and from his sleeves six blades appeared. They began to rotate and twirl around him, and after a few more handsigns six more blades appeared around him.

"You have no doubt already noticed that my blades can be both real or genjutsu. One I control with a Puppet Master ninjutsu, while the other is illusion. One will slice you open, while the other will trick you into thinking you got sliced. Either way, you have to dodge all!" In a burst of speed and superior skill, Hidoukai disappeared from sight and reappeared infront of Naruto. Three of the blade spinning around him swung at Naruto, who quickly on instinct batted them aside with both tails and claws.

But as soon as the three swords were swatted away another three filled there stead while two spun around and tried to slice his legs clean off. Knowing he couldn't knock them all away Naruto jumped back swiftly to get distance, but when he did another blade struck him as he jumped, slicing deeply into his shoulder.

Landing with a skid Naruto grabbed his shoulder and yelped in sudden pain. The blade had cut deep, and he could feel his arm become partially unable to respond to his will, indicating either it was a genjutsu or a ligament had just been sliced. Either way the blood the ran from the wound was enough to bring him back into reality that he had to stay focused.

Listening with his sensitive ears Naruto leapt high into the air, dodging Hidoukai and his spinning blades from cutting his head clean off. Digging down deep Naruto quickly willed his darker chakra to his control and flashed through the necessary handsigns.

"Too slow bastard! Take this! Kitsune Art: Tornado Fox Fire Jutsu!" Breathing in deeply Naruto exhaled a gale of majestic blue flames. They exploded outwards and turned into multiple streams of fire. Those streams quickly bound together and began to spin rapidly, forming a huge tornado of blue fire that surged towards the ground where Hidoukai stood. The flames plunged into the ground, covering a wide area and incinerating everything it touched.

Hidoukai was easily able to dodge the flames, and had leapt back a number of paces to avoid the jutsu. But it came to his complete surprise when the tornado of blue fire spun rapidly along the round, following him as he tried to dodge away from it.

Naruto landed with a focused Ram handsign, controlling the flames from a distance hoping to capture his target within them. Naruto could see Hidoukai was beginning to panic as the flames chased him, ever encroaching on him, and it would only be a short while before they caught up to him. The jutsu wasn't able to forfill its purpose however, as his concentration was broken again by a sword piercing straight through his chest.

The surging yokai chakra in his system from using one of his Kitsune Arts caused the sword to vanish quickly however, signifying it was only a genjutsu blade. But his concentration was still broken and grabbing hold of his darker chakra was not particularly easy right now, the fox was obviously still in a mood.

The jutsu dissolved soon after, leaving only a trail of incinerated ash as the ground it travelled along. Hidoukai appeared next to him soon after, a flurry of blades spinning around and striking at him. Naruto could do nothing but dodge some and use his tails and claws to knock away the rest. But it was not an easy task, and quite a number of times the blades nicked and pierced his skin. Some of the times even cutting slightly into his tails.

This attack continued for awhile, Naruto was left completely on the defensive and couldn't even hope to get close enough to counter attack, cause as soon as he blocked and/or knocked a blade away it had already spun around and begun to attack again. The constant pain from the cuts and the slices that would follow every slip up were effecting him harshly, and he could feel his body begin to slow from the exhaustion.

Knowing he needed to do something, anything at all to get some distance, Naruto forced a huge concentration of chakra to his feet, skyrocketing him backwards.

"Oh no! You won't get away from me you little fox brat! My blades will bath in your blood!" Hidoukai just copied suit, and lunged forward with a burst of chakra.

He had hoped to get enough distance to think of a counter attack but Hidoukai had already begun to rush forward towards him. Hoping to get more distance away with a jutsu Naruto quickly prepared another fox fire jutsu.

"Kitsune Art: Explosion of Fox Fire Jutsu!" Unlike his other techniques that were employed from his hands or mouth, this one formed all around him, like an aura of blue flame surrounding his body. In a pulse of power the fox fire literally lived up to its name and exploded in all directions. Sending a powerful and destructive wave of blue flames blasting away from him. It was a chaotic jutsu that practically could not be used in any team situations, as the fire held no bounds as it pushed outwards.

Hidoukai was forced to dodge back several meters, and upon noticing that the flames refused to cease there pulse outwards, incinerating everything that touched, he was forced onto the defensive and resorted to a simple barrier jutsu with his blades. "Ninja Art: Barrier of Puppet Blades Jutsu!" The six real blades, as well as a handful more that appeared from his sleeves, broke into a thousand pieces. And quickly formed together infront of him as a single huge shield with spiked edges. The metal disk quickly began to spin at increasing velocities and Hidoukai shifted himself behind it, the shield folding the flames away from him with it spins.

When the flame passed Hidoukai disgruntledly threw away the shield upon inspection. It had been super heated and melted beyond use. It was a waste of several of his real blades, but it had saved him from getting roasted alive by the strange blue flames. He noticed that his genin opponent seemed significantly worn out from that jutsu and decided it was about time to end this drawn out fight. Summoning more blades from his sleeves and creating more genjutsu blades, he charged forward with the intent to end the brat's life.

He stopped suddenly though when something caught the corner of his eye. Knowing to be always aware of his surroundings he paused to make sure it was safe, to both his and Naruto's surprise a small girl hurried out from the underbush, stepping onto the charred ground.

"Naruto-Fox!" The little girl called out, completely unaware of the danger she was putting herself in. Most young children wouldn't understand the situation, it was not there nature to know such things.

Hidoukai despised children, and having one interrupt his fight fuelled his anger. He would have dealt with her later but he saw the sudden fear appear in the fox brats face. He knew that look of fear, it was the fear of danger to a loved one. This girl obviously meant something to him. Usually it was above him to toy with his enemies in such a manor, but imagining the pain it would bring the genin was just too much an opportunity to pass up.

"Foolish girl! Die!" Hidoukai yelled loudly, spinning around and launching five real blades straight at her. He only smirked at the look that appeared on the fox brats face.

"KIKYO!" Naruto's mind kicked into overdrive seeing the blades fly towards the little girl who had taken a liking to him, the world seemed to shift into slow motion as he felt himself just act. His body moved completely on its own accord, rushing towards the girl. But seeing the world in slow motion revealed that he would not be able to reach her in time, the blades approaching her far faster then he was moving.

'_NO! NO! IT CAN'T HAPPEN AGAIN! WHY CAN'T I PROTECT HER? WHY CAN'T I EVER PROTECT ANYONE?' _His mind was rushed as he carried on moving towards her, to move her, or intercept the blades, he didn't care! He just had to stop another person that was precious to him from being killed infront of him.

Images of his mother flashed before his mind, images of her smiling, of her speaking to him with a kind face. They tormented him, he saw her die, he had seen her pass from this world and he could of stopped it had he been able to smell the chakra metal earlier. But he had been too weak then to stop it, and because of that weakness Hitomi, his surrogate mother, was killed. And now, even now he was too weak, he wasn't fast enough, and now Kikyo would die too.

'_DAMMIT! WHY AM I ALWAYS SO WEAK?'_

The world before him seemed to ripple slightly, and for a second he had to wonder if time itself had just stopped. Closing his eyes he desperately tried to rid his mind of the haunting images, knowing that when he opened them again he would be seeing Kikyo dead at his feet made him feel like keeping them shut forever.

But that suddenly changed and his eyes shot open when he heard a vicious, cruel and booming voice of evil echo around him.

"**Foolish boy!... You can't hope to save everyone, the mortals of this world all have to die eventually, sometimes things happen that cause those deaths sooner for some. Even you yourself have ended someone's life shorter then it was supposed to be. This little girl will just have her life, cut very short indeed… Heh heh heh…**" The fox seemed pleased when its jailor glared up at it with eyes of pure hatred and rage, it was those emotions that it was most known for, and he relished in causing his host such emotions.

"SHUT UP! What the heck do you know about life you bastard fox? You just sit around all day inside me doing nothing but making my life hell! Even when you were free you made many other's lives hell! Your nothing but a heartless monster!" The words didn't particularly seem to sting the fox, more just attack its pride.

"**Don't you DARE try to insult me you foolish brat! I would feast on your marrow if I could break these damn seals!**" Naruto in his anger at the fox and his unwillingness to accept he would see another death had missed a detail about the fox just now and earlier. Every other time he had 'visited' his prisoner the fox had been 'tired and worn out', but this time he spoke with a more powerful tone, and he was able to stand and even glare at him through the great iron bars.

Looking around him he noticed the usual wisps of red chakra floating around the room, but unlike every other time he had been here, they weren't flowing towards him, instead they were being drawn towards the seal on the cage. Naruto had known that since the fox had forcibly taken its chakra back that it had been uncooperative to let him use its chakra, but looking around the wisps of red chakra were also being drawn from the tunnel leading out of the sealing room, the fox was stealing HIS yokai chakra!

"You bastard fox! What are you doing? This chakra is mine!" His last attempt at getting the fox to speak had just annoyed it, but this time he had really managed to piss it of.

"**SILENCE! This chakra is MINE! You have been stealing it since I was sealed inside your wrecked body! You body was changed originally when I was sealed, and it has been producing more of my chakra as you have grown, but. It. Is. Still. MINE!**" Naruto just growled defiantly at the fox in return, his tails waiving menacingly in a fashion similar to how a young fox would rebel against its elders.

Walking up to the cage Naruto barked aggressively at the fox before slamming a palm down on the paper seal over the cage, his other hand forming a half-handsign. "I never wanted YOUR chakra! But if you try to take mine then I will only take it back!" In his mind Naruto pictured the same access method to his yokai chakra as he would if he was preparing one of his Kitsune Arts.

In an instant a huge flood of red chakra burst from down the tunnel and surged into the sealing room. It flowed around the whole room in a torrent, before rushing towards Naruto and entering him. His body quickly changed into its more feral state as he felt the wave of power surge through him, holding his position he opened his eyes again to glare up at the fox with blood red slitted eyes, watching it as it slammed against the gates in rage at what Naruto was doing.

"For causing me so much trouble it is you who should be giving me chakra as rent for living in my body!" Following the same method to access his own yokai chakra, Naruto shifted his thoughts to the fox, and using the same method willed it to be drawn to him.

The fox roared and slammed against the cage in incalculable rage, demanding that Naruto stop or it would ripe his soul apart.

"**Stop this! STOP THIS! NARUTO!**" Naruto had never heard the fox refer to him by his name before, and that only spurred him on more. Within moments red chakra began to seep from the bars of the cage, and filtered out into the room. Unlike his own yokai chakra which was red wisps. The fox's was a red bubbling goo. He willed the foxes chakra too him, and his own yokai flushed out and grabbed hold of the foxes chakra, seemingly battling it as it pulled it towards him.

Huge amounts of the Fox's chakra was pulled from within the bars, and Naruto's eyes flashed a pure white momentarily when the chakra converged on him, being drawn into his body. He howled in pain from the heat of it, but he was use to the power from using it several times so the pain wasn't overpowering. Feeling enough of it enter his body after a few minutes Naruto took his hand off the seal and ceased his focusing.

Stepping back slowly his blood red eyes starred into the cage, seeing the fox laying down and breathing heavily, just as it always use to. "This chakra is mine you bastard fox! So don't take it! You owe me it for living here and causing my life to be hell!" Naruto's only answer was a tired but still powerful growl from within the cage.

Satisfied that he taken back his yokai enough of the fox's to help him Naruto closed his eyes and willed himself to wake, leaving his subconscious before hearing the fox's words.

"**You will pay for this… Naruto…**"

His eyes snapped open and he was greeted with the slow world he had left not even seconds ago. Time didn't seem to pass while he was in his subconscious. In an instant Naruto felt a surge of power flow through him, the yokai mixing with his normal chakra and coursing through his system. His eyes turned blood red and his features became more wild and pronounced, while his claws grew slightly and sharpened. The same transformation that occurred every time he tapped into the fox's chakra.

Except… this time it was different. He hadn't tapped into the fox's chakra subconsciously through sheer rage. This time he had forcibly taken some of it. The power was the same, and it pulsed through him the same, but this time, it didn't cloud his mind. He could feel no anger, no hatred, no rage, no bloodlust. Just power. He would admit it wasn't even half the amount of power when he was tapping into the fox's chakra through rage, but this was more then enough for what he needed it for.

Kikyo had been overwhelmed with joy when she had found her foxy friend, she had been looking for him ever since he went to leave her village, she had heard a rather loud bunch of sounds that had scared her away from her play area and luckily she had been able to sneak away while her mommy was distracted by the loud sounds. She knew if she found Naruto he would keep her safe from the sounds.

Being but a child she had no idea how to find him, she just wandered in the direction that felt right, luckily, or unluckily in this case, she could feel his weird 'presence' easily and just followed it. At times she thought it felt really angry and scary, but other times it was a calming presence.

She had somehow found her friend, he was in a strange clearing in the forest, staring at a scary looking man, and she called out to him with joy. But the events that followed was confusing, one minute the scary man was yelling at her, the next her friend stood crouched over her, a shocked look on his face. But even at her age, she could tell that the five large spikes protruding from his chest and stomach, and the blood that dripped off him was not a good thing.

Naruto stared down at the little girl he had bonded with during that short stay at the village, she was looking up to him in both surprise at his sudden appearance and child-like worry for the blood she saw.

"N-Naruto-fox? Are y-you ok?" Kikyo asked in a trembling voice, unsure of what had just taken place.

"I am now. You are safe Kikyo-chan… I… GAH!" Naruto yelped loudly in pain as the blades were twisted sidewards, cutting deeper into him before they were harshly withdrawn from his body, pulling him back slightly. He would have stumbled, had he had the energy to even move, the world felt… cold? He could not even remember closing his eyes before the world went black.

Hidoukai howled in murderous and insane laughter seeing his opponent fall down, unmoving. It was the final moments that always made killing someone so much more wonderful!

Turning to the little girl that was staring at the boy's body with wide shocked eyes, he could only manage a smirk while slowly walking towards her, deactivating his jutsu and genjutsu knowing that she wasn't a threat. He would probably prefer to kill her with his own bare hands anyway. But a voice calling from the forest caught his attention, it was the voice of a woman.

"Kikyo-san? Kikyo-san? Where have you gon- oh! There you are Kikyo-san!" From within the forest stepped the most beautiful woman Hidoukai had ever seen. And he had seen A LOT of women.

She was tall, almost as tall as him and her body was long and slender to match, but had the perfect hourglass curves. Her skin was as pale as a fresh winter snow and her hair a contrasting deep brown reaching down to her mid-back. She had a rather generous bust size that had immediately grabbed his attention, but it was her face that struck him.

Her face was the perfect mixture of playfulness, regalness, dangerous, sharp, intellectual, yet soft and delicate, a refined beauty. Her lips bright red and her face beautifully constructed, set amazingly alight by bright sapphire blue eyes. It was almost like someone had grabbed the best qualities of half a dozen gorgeous women of various temperaments and personalities and melded them together to make this one goddess of a woman, if it wasn't for the ugly village drabs she wore, Hidoukai would have mistaken her for Amateratsu herself!

The woman smiled brightly having found the young girl she was looking for, but that smile quickly change when she noticed the young leaf ninja boy that had come to the village lying on the ground mere feet from Kikyo, bleeding openly on the ground.

She would have screamed, she would have screamed for help and attempted to grab Kikyo and run, but the strange man she had noticed near Kikyo vanished from sight, appearing behind her and held her mouth shut with his hand.

"Now now Beautiful. Can't have you screaming for help, I don't want to have to kill such a fine lady… yet that is." He finished in a low tone almost whispering in her ear before licking the side of her neck, the woman froze at the sudden events and hundreds of thoughts travelled through her head in an attempt to figure out something to do, she had just come to find her friend's daughter, not get grabbed and touched inappropriately by some random!

Freaking out at the situation she tried to struggle free, but Hidoukai just held her tight, before pushing her to the ground. He loved a woman that struggled. She fell on her back and he quickly moved to hold her down in place, this was going to be the best day ever! He killed a whole gang of bandits, a woman in the village, a stupid fox brat, and how he was going to have fun with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen! The perfect way to end any killing spree!

Advancing on her and holding her in place, he could see the fear in her eyes as she struggled again, she would have screamed, but something told her if she did she wouldn't be alive long. Tears began to fall from her eyes, and she begged him not to do anything to her, to just let her go.

"Sorry Beautiful, your mine now." Moving down and holding her harshly he went to steal a forced kiss from her. But that kiss never came, instead he felt a strange warmth around his neck, looking down as best he could he noticed it was furry and fluffy, just like one of the brat's tails. Quickly looking back at the woman under him he immediately noticed her wicked grin. His limbs were quickly held in place by the rest of the woman's tails and he was restrained completely, mere centimetres above her.

She leaned forward with a wicked smile, and whispered gently into his ear. "And this, if for hurting my sensei." Wasting no time the beautiful woman thrust her hand through his chest, having claws sharp enough to cut through metal made it easy to pierce right through, piercing and rupturing his heart.

His eyes widened in surprise and shock at the sudden attack, and it was visible with plain sight to see the life quickly leaving his body. In his very last moments his eyes changed though, shifting from there insane, madman look to one of gentle sorrow and regret, a look completely out of character on his face. Looking down at the 'woman' he had been fooled by he noticed her cheeks had the same whisker like marks that the brat did, he had been tricked by some sort of transformation jutsu. But in a way, he was glad.

"Thank you… I am free…" With his last, yet ominous words, the last lights of life faded from Hidoukai's eyes, and he collapsed, dead.

The woman used her tails to move him off her, and stood up looking down at him with a confused stare. Raising her hands and holding a small handful of reeds high a light flashed around her before her form and shape started to shift and reshape, eventually changing form entirely, and in her place, Naruto stood, still looking down at the dead brother of his sensei.

In a flash of red and orange light a strange symbol appeared like fire above Hidoukai's head, and a similar chain-like symbol on his forehead appeared and began to glow. Naruto was intrigued by the mark and stepped closer to inspect it, but just like they had appeared they vanished, the mark disappearing after the image changed to a broken chain.

Content that this time Hidoukai was dead, Naruto turned back to Kikyo, only to find her laying down on the burnt ground, a slow rise of her chest indicating that she had somehow fallen asleep. Next to her though, was a pitch black crow, said crow was staring at him intently before suddenly flapping a frenzy and flying off.

Naruto ignored the bird and gently lifted the little girl up, and turned to rush back to the village. He needed to get back to his team as quickly as possible and so pumped as much chakra as he could into his legs for the boost.

Covered by the shadows of the treeline, a pair of red eyes with three tomoe marks inside them spun wildly as they watched carefully from the sidelines. The figure the eyes belong to nodded to himself before turning away, a pleased smile appearing on his usually calm and collected face.

"Well done Naruto-kun, you have gotten much stronger."

The ground itself seemed to scream with pain as another volley of sharpened rocks exploded from beneath the soil, another cry of madness echoing around the border of the village.

Takashi stood in the centre of yet another crater, his hulking body of muscle was even visible through the thick clouds of dust from his destructive earth jutsu. "Still going foolish genin? Can't you see you are outmatched? Your clan's gifts are prizes in themselves, but are useless against my jutsu!" He cried while laughing boisterously. He had seemed to Hinata and Shino to be the quietest and most level headed of the three insane brothers. But as time and the battle went on, his mind seemed to get more and more unhinged. And Hinata had to wonder if it was the genjutsu he was using on himself.

"Take this! Earth Style: Thousands Shards of Piercing Earth!" The earth he had just shattered suddenly begun to rise up, and thousands and thousands of tiny needles formed by the rocks breaking down and sharpening. With a clap of his hands the needles flew forth, targeting through the dust at Hinata and Shino.

Looking at the sheer number of tiny needles and watching them carefully with her Byakugan, it was times like this that Hinata curst her inability to perform the Gentle Fist: Rotation. She had far superior flexibility then her cousin Neji, yet her mastery over her Byakugan and chakra points didn't allow for her to perform it like he could. She shifted her stance in preparation to deflect as many as she could, she couldn't outrun them, so this was the next best bet.

The needles honed in on her and caused a literal explosion of dust on contact. Thousands and thousands of tiny rock needles converging on her at once. She had been prepared, but there was no way she could have dodged them all, yet, when she opened her eyes, she realised that she didn't feel any pain, and Shino stood over her, his body a literal pin-cushion to thousands and thousands of needles.

She feared for a moment that he had just shielded her, throwing himself into harms way for her, but her fears were put at ease when his body exploded into a black cloud of Kikai, showing that it was only an Insect Clone that had protected her.

Knowing to not remain still in this battle too long Hinata charged forward, the cloud of Kikai circling around her while she guided herself through the dust clouds with her Byakugan. Finding Takashi within the centre of the cloud she attempted to strike at him with several Gentle Fist attacks, aiming to either shatter sections of his armour of disable a few chakra points.

Shino had been tracking his teammate through his insects and rose up from under the ground just beside her, having hid himself underground to escape the needles he now assisted her in the surprise attack against there opponent.

They attacked in sync, one attacking from behind while the other the flank, Hinata struck Takashi's earth armour in multiple locations, which huge bursts of chakra in efforts to break it or atleast crack it. While Shino took the more direct approach and utilized a set of Taijutsu strikes while instructing his insect companions to cover Takashi and find a way to break down the armour and drain his chakra.

While having not expected them to even be alive after that jutsu let alone counter attacking so quickly, Takashi was completely caught off guard by there surprise attack and did not have the time to block any of the attacks. He could of _attempted_ to dodge or maybe even block, but instead he purposely chose to take each and every hit they could deal him.

They surprisingly kept attacking him for awhile, weaving around him and striking quick and hard. He had to admit he admired there attempt, but that all it was, just an attempt as they didn't even scratch his armour. Suddenly growing tired of them he reached out with his hulking arms, and caught them both, one in each hand.

"Fools! When will you learn that my armour is invincible? Nothing you can do can break such a high density of earth!" Instead of waiting for a response he just used his ridiculous strength to hurl them both away, Shino was sent crashing into the village wall, cracking it severely with the speed he impacted it with. He gave a cry of pain as at least one of his bones cracked from sheer force.

Takashi wasn't someone who couldn't learn from past mistakes, and instead of assuming that wouldn't return he chose to follow Shino and take him out.

Hinata landed fairly gracefully, having been able to right herself in mid air with burst of chakra. But she had been thrown too far away to help Shino in time. Instead all she could do was watch from a distance as Takashi quickly approached her teammate, his huge arms preparing to crush him with a fierce punch.

Shino looked up through now broken sunglasses and actually smirked momentarily when he saw Takashi approaching him. Raising one hand Shino quickly formed a single handsign and pulsed his chakra slightly. Shino hadn't been wastefully attempting to break there enemy's armour with just physical combat, and since he knew that physical assaults weren't the answer he had placed three Explosive Tags on Takashi in there sneak attack.

The result of his chakra pulse was all three of the tags exploded instantly. The explosion restirred the dust up once more, completely covering there battlegrounds and shacking the earth around them. Shino watched intently through the dust, carefully monitoring it for any sign of Takashi emerging. Needing to see quickly what the results of the tags were, Shino ordered his companions to remove the dust.

A huge swarm of Kikai collected together within the dust cloud and as a whole they began to fly like a tornado, and increasing in velocity they were able to quickly clear the area and return vision of the field to there host.

Takashi stood in the centre of where the dust had been, his hulking back half hunched over from the blast, but nothing. Not even a scratch could be seen.

"Ha... haha... Hahahaha! Is that all you can do? A simple Explosive Tag wont be enough to stop me!" Stretching and flexing his hulking body to prove his point Takashi just continued to laugh in a mocking manor. But Shino wasn't paying attention to his opponents mocking, he was surprised to his a very small crack near Takashi's neck, the exact location he had placed one of his tags.

Knowing that Takashi wouldn't take long to attack, Shino had his insect companions assist him to stand. He just smirked again when Takashi's hulking body started shacking the rather destroyed landscape as he charged forward predictably.

Waiting till just the right time Shino signalled for Hinata. "Hinata-san now! 97 degrees!" Takashi would have paused his assault, had he been able to. His body was far to large to stop at such short notice and therefore had no time to react to Hinata appearing only a few meters from him.

"Eight Trigrams: Air Palm!" Hinata had been watching everything thought the cloud with her Byakugan, and Shino had been using the cover of the dust to communicate with her with instruction handsigns and so she knew what he was doing. Following his orders she released a stream of chakra bursts to simulate a large amount of forceful air, and expelled it from her palms. And while Takashi's body was heavy in its current state, the force of the Air Palm was enough to send him flying enough in the desired direction.

Shino watched carefully as Takashi was blown aside by his teammates jutsu, and waiting for the sign from his insect companions that everything was ready he activated another Explosive Tag, but this time, one that he had hidden in the ground.

Takashi could do nothing to prevent himself from being blown away, but what he really didn't expect was to land just above another Explosive Tag, that detonated just as he was in reach. His body was flown and blasted back by the explosion, and despite his armour, the shockwave itself was almost enough to wind him. But it seemed the attack wasn't over as he heard the bug brat yell out a similar order as before.

"54 degrees left!" Just like before Hinata responded by blasting Takashi aside with another chakra powered blast. The Air Palm a technique she had only just learnt from her father, and something he would be proud to see her using so well.

This assault continued for seven more times, each time Hinata was instructed on a direction to blast him in, and each time Shino would detonate one of the Explosive Tags he had set. When the final tag was detonated and Takashi left be, whatever was left of the landscape was now just a litter of smocking craters and broken earth.

Hinata and Shino stood together, side by side in there respective stances, waiting for Takashi to emerge from the dust that had once again appeared. If he emerged at all. There response was just a manatic laughter, before he sped through the cloud towards them with almost inhuman speed. Hinata had caught his movements with her Byakugan, she had seen his shift of chakra through his body, from strength to speed. He was preparing to take one of them out. She had been able to watch him through the dust, but Shino had not, and so was unprepared when Takashi burst forward from the dust cloud almost directly infront of him.

Hinata had seen it, and her eyes could tell her that if Takashi's raised fists struck Shino like this, then that would be it for him. The amount of chakra surging through Takashi's body right now would mean almost instant death from sheer force alone.

She didn't know why, or how, but her body just moved on its own accord. She didn't have confidence in this fight, she had been fearing all along that they were outmatched. But she just couldn't let her teammate die. He was her friend, and she could never let him die infront of her. She was always a kind hearted person, but recently she had been adopting more of Naruto's desire to protect.

Moving in front of Shino in a flash she had no defence against his attack, if only she could perform the Rotation, but she couldn't... all that chakra control yet she still couldn't master that technique that her cousin could perform so easily. Seeing Takashi's strike approach she decided to atleast try to hit him also, but from her angle to move infront of Shino it would be hard to get anything but a swipe across his chest.

_'Remember Hinata-chan, this is only chakra theory. While I think its good that you are working on it, I don't believe it's possible to make anything from it apart from improving chakra control. But, to help you you can try to focus everything that the scroll told you but into a single point at a time, that way it will be easier to concentrate on.'_

Her sensei's voice echoed in her head as she made her strike, she and her sensei had worked alot of that night on the strange chakra manipulation techniques, and while they hadn't succeeded in anything it had given her some ideas. And despite the fact even the scroll said it was probably impossible she still believed it could be done.

She could try? What had she to lose? Takashi's attack would kill her when it struck so she had might as well prove everything wrong about the manipulations techniques as one final proof that she wasn't weak. Following the scrolls instructions she focused the chakra and 'bladed' it then extended it from her hand. She could feel her chakra move but it wasn't right, the bursts would ruin it so she decided to refine it and focus it to just the very centre of her palm. Forcing every ounce of chakra she possessed into her palm she could feel a pull in the very centre, but as her hand passed infront and over Takashi's chest she felt nothing happen.

She expected to feel immense pain, but instead nothing came, looking up at Takashi she saw him literally frozen in place, his eyes wide in absolute shock almost like he had been run through with a blade. Her eyes searched for any reason to his stunned silence, and her answer came when she saw a fine but deep and long gash across his chest, cutting straight through the armour and deep into his chest, so deep infact that blood literally began to pour from the gash.

While she had been too shocked by the sudden change in events, Shino was not, and immediately ordered his insect companions to enter through the break in Takashi's armour and drain him of his chakra. They did as he instructed, knocking there prey to the ground with force and using the break to crawl under the armour and all over his body, eating and draining all of his chakra.

As more and more chakra was drained Takashi's 'bulging' body began to fade, and he started to quickly look more like a gaunt old man. Normally the Kikai cannot drain enough chakra from a human to kill them, but Takashi had been abusing his genjutsu and his body was suffering majoring from the heavily detrimental chakra usage and so having his chakra drained in such a rapid manor his life started to fade, something that Hinata was the first to notice.

Looking up to the two genin infront of him he couldn't comprehend what had happened, one minute he was about to pound the bug brat into dust then the next minute it felt like his entire chest had been ripped open and sliced apart.

As with Hidoukai he suddenly gained a forlorn look over his face, not that you could see much of it being covered in insects and his armour was breaking off. But he looked up at the two genin again, and Hinata noticed a tear running down from the corner of his eyes, she could plainly see that something had come back to him, a memory? But either way it had severely affected him to almost completely change his personality in his final breaths.

"You two... will do well... thank you... for... releasing me..."

Shortly after his words his head fell to the side, the last slithers of life leaving him completely. Shino's companions noticed the lack of chakra on there target and returned to him, vanishing up his sleeves.

Shino turned to Hinata and placed a hand on her shoulder, he noted she seemed a little 'lost' and figured it was an after affect of the battle. He would have thanked her for saving his life, but both he and his teammate were distracted by the sudden appearance and glow of a strange 'chain-like' symbol appearing above Takashi's unmoving head.

If someone was to see Kurenai and Idakai fight that would have just seen both of them standing in a meditative stance mere meters apart. Unmoving and unblinking. But they were both high level genjutsu masters, as so they fought not physically, but in there minds.

In there worlds upon worlds of illusions Idakai stood balanced on a single rocky platform suspended on molten magma while Kurenai was not in sight. Turning around hearing a hiss he placed his hand up and caught the 'lava ball' that flicked up at him. It burnt his hand to catch but that feeling quickly vanished as he removed that small genjutsu.

Suddenly he heard a loud roar from beneath the lava and before even having time to move a huge serpent made of slightly cooled lava sprung up from below, bringing with it a huge wave of lava that threatened to engulf him.

Dispelling the wave he focused his chakra and altered the genjutsu around him. Where it was once a heated pit of lava it was now a dark pit filled with spikes and Idakai watched with a sickening amusing smile as his sister fell from her place in the lava, onto a litter of spikes. The sight of watching them impale her was marvellous, and he was actually a little disappointed when she turned into a volley of pedals.

Turning around to catch her ankle as she attempted to kick him, he noted that his genjutsu was already overruled and they were back at forest. Only this time he was surrounded by hundreds of copies of his sister.

"Please, an imitation of the Shadow Clone Jutsu? Or have you perhaps even mixtured a few real clones in? That could be tricky, but I don't think you would risk leaving your chakra that low sister." Throwing her leg aside he struck out and thrust his blade through her stomach, the illusion simply vanishing. He was starting to get really tired of this game of 'hide-and-seek' they were having but that's how fights went when two genjutsu experts fought so he knew he would have to put up with it.

The 'clones' around him all charged forward the instant he had moved. Idakai would have attempted to fight them all, but this was a battle of illusions so he simply made a huge explosion appear that blasted everything around him and incinerated the landscape. He was left untouched, but a heat behind him suggested he best move.

A huge fireball flew past him as he dodged to the side, quickly flashing through more handsigns he himself turned into a fireball and he blasted towards Kurenai who had appeared from the ground.

Determined to end this properly she dispelled all of her genjutsu and dispelled his with her specialty genjutsu remover again adding the same set of extra handsigns onto it like she had been doing to all her genjutsu this fight. Having removed his genjutsu of a return fireball she found him sailing towards her in person, a kunai knife ready to end her life with.

Spinning up to face him she stopped his strike with her own kunai and attempted to kick him before her could touch ground. Her kick was blocked with his arm however and he simply pushed forward as he landed, hoping to push her off balance. It worked, and she began to fall backwards against her will. More the willing to take the opportunity he flashed his blade out and sliced it across her mid-section, feeling the blade sink true and slice across her he smirked. But he was not ready for her to shift to the side, allowing the blade to cut her a little deeper but also allowing her to slam her fist into the side of his head.

He flew back from the force of the hit and landed harshly, his blade flying from his hand and disappearing into the forest. Kurenai smiled to herself seeing her brother lose his blade from her attack, looking down at her stomach she smiled again seeing only an ever so slightly cut that was barely visible. She had used a genjutsu to make it seem like she was closer then she actually was. Giving her the surprise she needed.

Her victory was short lived however when Idakai recovered from the strike and dashed forward to challenge her once more. "This fight is pointless imouto! Why do you even bother? We are no wear near evenly matched!" To prove his statement Idakai used a genjutsu that affected her instantly, a genjutsu that paralyses the opponent with fear. In particular he chose a the exact fear one feels when they are about to see someone they love die before them.

Dashing forward noticing the effect it hard on her Idakai thrust his kunai straight into her gut, smiling devilishly when her eyes shot wide in sudden pain. He knew she was not really here though, it would be just another genjutsu so he waited for her to vanish. But she did not, her body remained where it was, blood dripping from the clean wound in her stomach. He was genuinely surprised to realise it was really her, and it caught him so off guard that he was completely unprepared from her to punch him fiercely across the face, her petite size betraying her from her strength was impressive, easily enough to send him flying away from her.

"Oh? You are that sure brother? Then let me show you how wrong you are!" Ignoring the blood that dripped from the wound in her stomach Kurenai flashed through a long chain of handsigns, her chakra spiking tremendously as she released everything she could muster.

Plant's seemed to burst to life around her, huge trees and vines suddenly forcing themselves up from the earth, growing in such size and rate that within mere moments they had literally become the size of a two story house.

The vines and trees stopped when they reached that height however, and they slowly began to merge with her body and she started to disappear into the great trees and vines. The clump of flora starting to disfigure and 'mutate' quickly after that. It started with just a few odd blunges but within seconds a multitude of vines erupted from her body, they weaved and tangled amongst themselves and grew in thickness as more grew out from her.

Eventually the vines began to come together, binding tightly and growing in particular forms, shapes began to quickly emerge and eventually formed into a large vine-like Tortoise creature, its huge bulk and four legs were the first to form, then quickly sprouting from its body a huge, long neck of vines grew. The head formed after that, its huge maw a giant venus-flytrap.

The creature stumbled a few times, almost like it had difficulty moving after just appearing. But its stumbling stopped when half of Kurenai's body appeared from the top of his head.

Idakai looked up at the giant creature before him, it was easily 40foot high, and such a powerful genjutsu to create something so lifelike. But he was envious of this genjutsu, it wasn't one taught by his clan! This was a genjutsu she possessed that he did not! And it infuriated him to no end!

In an attempt to remove it from his sight he pulsed out his chakra at the exact frequency needed to get rid of it. But, to his surprise the genjutsu did not vanish, nor did he feel it dissolve even the slightest. He attempted again, and again to dispel it, but it still didn't vanish.

"Where did you get such a genjutsu? Why can't I get rid of it? THERE ISN'T A GENJUTSU IN ALL OF OUR CLAN THAT COULD NOT BE DISPELLED!" He demanded while dodging a sudden strike from the creature, a huge vine that had swung at him, but his answer came in the form of a giant foot attempting to crush him.

Dodging the giant foot was difficult and it shook the very ground as it landed. But Idakai didn't have any time to move to much more as another huge vine swung at him as he tried once more to dispel it.

"You three spent all of your years murdering senselessly with a jutsu you _stole_. Whereas in Konoha, I have been _developing_ all kinds of genjutsu that you will never possess! Now die!" To illustrate her words she quickly ran through a sequence of handsigns, causing the vine-tortoise like creature to shift and thousands of vines erupted from its 'shell'. They started out all bent and scraggly, but quickly straightened and sharpened to deadly points. In an instant they pointed towards Idakai, and thrust outwards, Idakai's eyes widening in unbelievable and indescribably pain as thousands of vines pierced straight through his flesh.

Idakai screamed to the heavens as he felt his body literally shredded to pieces, the pain was fake, but this amount was inhuman, he couldn't even begin to describe it. It was like ten thousand years of hell was condensed into one split second and unleashed upon his entire soul.

The vines within him split apart, thousands of even smaller vines splitting and disintegrating his body. The pain was unbearable and no matter how many times he attempted to dispel it, the genjutsu never vanished.

Kurenai grew out of the ground next to her brothers body, and leaned down to whisper in his ear. "You are the weak one now brother. I overtook you years ago, I surpassed you in every way. Oh, and if you were wondering why you couldn't release the genjutsu, its because I developed a special genjutsu that works as a trigger-copy. Whenever a certain action is done it triggers, I set dozens of them up to do one thing: trigger when you attempted to dispel this current genjutsu, and simply recast it. I have been setting them up all throughout our fight. And you never noticed."

Kurenai wasn't the type to torture her opponents, but seeing the look of hatred in her pain filled eyes from knowing how he had lost she somehow found amusing. She didn't want to cause anyone any unnecessary pain and so reached out with her kunai and simply slit his throat, an action that was done for real.

Idakai's eyes shot wide in pain, but it was nothing compared to the current pain that wrecked his body so it didn't affect him too much, and as life started to leave him Kurenai noticed an odd look in his eyes, a look she remember long ago, it was the eyes of her brother, and not a madman.

"Tell mother... father... I'm sorry..." He chocked out with his last breaths before falling silence forever. Kurenai stood up and ended all the genjutsu around them and she found herself standing next to his real body in a pool of blood in the centre of the forest not the swamp that had been the last genjutsu he cast. She didn't comprehend his words, they made no sense, and his voice was so calm yet full of regret, and she could see that tears had started to form in his eyes.

Stepping back from her brother she looked up to the sky, a cool breeze sudden blowing around her, a sense of complete calmness surrounded her and she could feel tears falling from her eyes as a relief of many years of built up regret flooded her system. She felt peace, a complete and total peace in both body and soul that she never even knew was possible, she was finally free of her past, she was finally free of one of the brother's that had killed her family.

"You are free mother, father... you can both rest in peace with our family. I have avenged you." So overcome with her own relief and emotions, Kurenai didn't notice the chain like symbol appearing about her brother's head.

Many miles away, a shadowed figure clenched his head in sudden pain, almost like a piece of his mind had been forcibly ripped out from him.

"My lord? What's wrong?" Called a dark feminine voice beside him.

Turning to his right hand guard the cloaked man looked up at her slightly, seeing the worry in her eyes he felt it best to answer, even if he truly didn't care.

"It seems three links of the chain were broken, I have had those three in my services for years, I had never thought they would be defeated so suddenly." The aged man replied, his voice deep and commanding despite his obvious pain. "Don't worry, they were only pawns, there death's are truly meaningless."

The cloaked man stood up from his seat and left the main hall, ignoring the glances he got from his subordinates, the pain wasn't much, but it was enough to distract him from his thoughts. Although, it mattered little, everything he had been planing for many years had finally started to come together, so the lose of three rogue ninja was no loss.

"Soon... the time is soon to break the chains is almost here." He spoke to himself in a dark tone, before breaking out in maddened laughter as his steps echoed down the dark corridor.


	32. Chapter 31: Return

Another chapter release. I quite liked a majority of this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliated products. I do however own any original plot in the fanfiction.

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Chapter 31 – Return

Team 8 stood at the main gates to Kuzaku Village, smiling brightly at the cheers they received from the villagers. Naruto in particular adored there cheer. The whole village had been saved by there efforts and there efforts had even been completely outside there original mission scope, something the villagers and monks were most gracious for.

The genin of Team 8 stood in a line, with there sensei standing just infront of them, and as Kurenai heard the cheers and the compliments and the eternal bouts of gratitude she couldn't feel more proud of her team. Admitably she had done them a great wrong, as by putting them in such a situation she was recklessly risking there lives, no Jonin would allow there students to battle B rank, nearing A rank, criminals. And yet she had. But despite her foolishness she felt an odd sort of knowing run through her, almost like she had foreseen or perfectly expected them to survive. Regardless she shouldn't have been such a terrible sensei, and she would make it up to them somehow.

From the crowd of cheering villagers Kiharu stepped forward, he was walking with a limp and held a cane in his left hand to support him as he moved. A white bandage around his leg thigh clearing stained red was the obvious reason to his movement troubles. He had been attacked by the brothers, and sadly had been nothing against the three of them.

"Kurenai-sama, Hinata-sama, Shino-sama, Naruto-sama." As Kiharu began to speak, the whole village quieted, all allowing him to speak to the team that had saved them all. "This village is eternally indebted to you, you four not only returned one of our greatest treasures to us, but also defended us against a deadly enemy that not only would have destroyed us all but an enemy that you did not have to defend us against. You gave us back our relic, but more importantly you gave us our lives. And for that, I thank you all."

Kiharu bowed low, a bow that was soon followed by every villager in all of Kuzaku. Kiharu was a very high standing monk and hearing him refer to them with such respect was a little unnerving, something that he must have noticed because he soon stood up with a friendly smile adorning his face.

"I would like to extend a thanks to you all in a different way other then just my words of gratitude." Saying that, Kiharu began to withdraw a medium sized box from within his robes but Kurenai gently grabbed his hand to stop him.

"Please Kiharu-sama, we don't require any rewards, while it was outside the scope of the mission, it would have been against our village's 'Will of Fire' to ignore a village under our protection." Kurenai explained with a proud smile, her statement was true, it wasn't in the mission but was still within there morals and teachings to help. But she knew he would just ignore her anyway.

"Nonsense, these young genin risked there lives for us when they didn't have to, and against an enemy far above them in terms of experience and skill, they deserve our gratitude. Besides, I think they each learnt something very valuable to each of them, and many experiences that I hope will bring them far in the world, and so did you Kurenai-sama." He said while retrieving the box and slowly opening it.

What he said was true, this mission had taught all of Team 8 many things, and also would changed them all in some way or another, particularly Kurenai, whom after so many years could finally have the inner peace she was denied.

Stepping forward slowly to Naruto first, Kiharu knelt down a little to be eye level with the hanyou holding a small scroll. Kurenai saw the title written on the outside of the scroll and had to stifle the coming full-blown laughter. "Naruto-sama, Kitsune Hanyou of Konoha, thank you for saving our village and young Kikyo-chan's life. To you, whom suffer's from inner conflicts that no one else could possibly understand, I give you this, a scroll of meditation used by our younger monks in training, I hope it will help you in showing you ways to calm your mind." Naruto smiled brightly and scratched his head a little embarrassed at Kiharu's formality, but picked up the scroll with a tail and bowed in thanks nonetheless.

Unable to help herself at the perfect opportunity to stir her hanyou student Kurenai piped up with a small comment to rouse his short temper. "Hmph, good look with that Naruto-kun, you couldn't even sit still for 5 seconds let alone the time needed for meditation."

Naruto reacted as expected and glared at his sensei hatefully, growling rather loudly as he yelled off all sorts of arguments to her 'insult'. To which just caused everyone around him to laugh heartily at his predictable and 'passionate' reaction.

After a short laugh himself, Kiharu slowly stepped over to Hinata and withdrew another scroll. "Hinata-sama, Heiress of the honourable Hyuga Clan, thank you for saving our village and preventing the destruction of our homes. I heard from your sensei that you are developing new chakra manipulations and even had a potential breakthrough during your battle, such an endeavour is a near impossible task to most, but I believe you can achieve such a goal. To help you with your task I give you this, a scroll detailing the techniques of our 'Inner Focusing' techniques we monks use to fortify the body, such chakra manipulations may help you make even more breakthroughs." Kiharu smiled almost like a proud grandfather when he saw the young heiress before him light up bright red from his formality and gift. She was a shy girl, but he could easily see the power she possessed, power far greater then that granted by her Clan's eyes.

Nodding slowly to Hinata's shy thank you Kiharu stepped over to Shino, the last genin of Team 8. "Shino-sama, Heir of the honourable Aburame Clan, thank you for saving our village and preventing the destruction of our homes alongside Hinata-sama. Your family has for generations been in closer contact with nature and its true ways then any other human, the link of companionship you have with your Kikai could never hope to be understood by others. To help bolster your link with your insect companions I give you this, a scroll detailing our 'Inner Concentration' techniques we monks use to fortify our mind. A stronger mind will lead to a stronger link, how this will benefit you I am unsure, but I hope you find it useful." Shino again showed an uncharacteristic smile in appreciation while bowing in kind to Kiharu, and a few moments later a small swarm of Kikai flew out of his sleeves and picked up the scroll before returning to their host's sleeves, carrying the scroll with them.

Turning to Kurenai, Kiharu bowed apologetically. "Forgive me Kurenai-sama but I could not think of any gift that would be of any use to you-"

"Please Kiharu-sama, I require nothing. It was our duty and honour to defend a village under the protection of Konoha, besides, I do not deserve anything having placed my students in such danger. As there sensei I should have had better judgement." Kiharu seemed a little lost at her words, almost like he was recalling a long forgotten memory and experiencing it again his eyes flashed a few times.

"You are much like your father Kurenai Yuhi," Kurenai's eyes shot wide at that comment and she gasped slightly, seemingly completely unprepared for such a thing.

"He visited this town once many years ago during a mission assigned to him when he was still a shinobi of Konoha. He had lost a comrade in the mission, because of an order he arranged. He came here to pray for his comrade and asked me for guidance to attain better judgement so that this wouldn't happen again. I told him he had made the right decision and in his confusion he denied my words." His words were affecting her far deeper then she was showing. Kurenai was a shinobi of Konoha was adept at hiding her emotions, but this had obviously been a story she had never been told, and it was easy to see hearing of her father was cutting deep despite her recent revenge.

"But you see, the decision he made saved the life of 14 other people, and had he not acted how he did those people may not have lived and his comrade might not have survived regardless. So you see Kunenai-sama, you are like him because while his choice and yours may not have been of the best judgement, it was from the heart, and any decision made from the heart is always the best of choices."

Kurenai looked down slightly for a moment, and for that very slight moment Team 8 could have sworn they saw their sensei give a slight shiver, almost like she was mentally holding herself in an embrace at his words. She was a stern strong teacher, an even stronger woman, and a great friend to them all, but it was times like this small moment that they could actually see that she was human too. That she too, despite the hardened exterior, was also a person with her own worries and problems, beliefs and goals, memories and sadness.

Looking back up at the elder monk, Kurenai smiled appreciatively and thanked him for his words. Kiharu smiled having seen his words bring a smile to the woman's face, she needed to smile in the next coming days cause while she had just been released from years of guilt and feelings of revenge, she would need a happiness to replace that hidden and once locked away void. But looking at the strong willed genin beside her, Kiharu felt that she would have everything she needed in life.

"Before you go, there is one person left to say his goodbyes." Almost like on queue Daisuke stepped out from the crowed and walked forward, despite his comatose state after being exposed to the Realm of the Red Moon a single night was enough for the young monk in training to recover. He walked towards them solemnly, obviously fully aware that the team knew what he had done, and from his own guilt he could barely bring himself to look them in the eyes as he addressed them.

"Thank you Kurenai-sama and Team 8… Thank you for saving the village and the monastery. You put yourselves in danger because of me… and… and my mother will probably never forgive me for what I did… But I now have a goal because of you all, I will train and become strong just like you all and like my mother. I will protect this village like she did… Thank you." Daisuke walked to each member of Team 8, starting with Kurenai and ending with Naruto he bowed to each, except when he stood infront of Naruto the young monk looked up high into the Hanyou's eyes.

"Thank you Naruto-sama, I will remember what you told me." Instead of bowing to Naruto like he did the rest he outstretched a bandaged hand, to which Naruto responded in kind by shacking the hand with a tail. Both boys smiling at the other with a serious expression.

Kurenai had to role her eyes at the serious faces, Daisuke may have meant what he said, but both boys seemed to take the hand/tail shake a little to competitively as she could easily see them strain against the other, subtlety comparing there ridiculous natural strength. Figuring it was best to break the rivalry moment up quickly, she gave the order for her team to leave.

"Come on you three, we have rested a full day now and you all should be fine for travel, we need to reach Konoha before sundown so its best to leave now. Daisuke-kun, Kiharu-sama, if you need the assistance of our village again don't hesitate to send a request." Kurenai bowed to them both before turning to leave, Shino and Hinata turning to follow also after a short bow. Naruto and Daisuke shook for a second before releasing there silent arm/tail wrestle. Naruto's smile disappeared as he looked down at the younger boy, he could no longer see the same darkness within them that he could just day's before, now he could only see a blazing fire growing within them. A fire that he knew very well, Daisuke now, like him, had a reason to prove himself and grow stronger.

"Take care alright, if we have another mission out here again I will stop by to challenge you. I need to make sure the guardian of Kuzaku is able to atleast hold his own against me. Although I will make sure to go easy on you, otherwise you could never beat Konoha's Kitsune Hanyou!" Naruto shouted in his usual loudmouth tone, declaring challenges randomly like he was well known for.

"Hah! Like I wouldn't be able to beat you! Its _me_ that will need to go easy." Daisuke shot back. For a second it looked light the two boys would have an argument and full fist fight there after that comment, but they both smiled and laughed loudly after a few awkward moments.

Turing away from the younger boy Naruto began to follow his sensei while waving enthusiastically behind him as the village once again bid their savours farewell. Although as to be expected they didn't get very far before a young girl burst through the crowd, escaping her mother once again to run to her favourite fox boy.

"Naruto Fox Naruto Fox!" Naruto stopped immediately when his sensitive ears picked up the sounds of Kikyo, he knew the little girl would show up sooner or later so he didn't bother to seek her out, knowing he would still see her before he left. He didn't have long to turn to face her before the little girl leapt up and literally attached herself to a tail.

"Are you g-going back to your h-house Naruto Fox?" The question was an innocent one, the young girl would not understand for many years why her favourite friend had visited and left so quickly, and anyone could see she was very upset that he was leaving, not only was her question stuttered but tears ran down he face like a river.

Lifting up the girl he had bonded with so quickly with a tail, he brought her up to eye level before giving her a big hug. "Yeah, I have to go back to my house, but I promise to visit one day okay? And I always keep my promises." Even Naruto could see she was obviously broken hearted that he was leaving, so he wanted to try his best to cheer her up.

"But it might be awhile before I can visit again, so I got you something so that you will remember my promise to visit." Keeping her balanced gently in the air with his tails, Naruto flashed through a short sequence of handsigns to deactivate an illusion that was on his hand.

The illusion disappeared revealing that he was holding a small red fox plushie with 5 equally red tails. He held out his hand and gave it too her, and thankfully her face lit up with excitement and happiness. In an instant it almost disappeared from his hand at how fast Kikyo grabbed it and snuggled it to her. Her tears completely vanishing.

"Hehe I'm glad you like it Kikyo-chan, it will remind you every time you see it that I will visit again, I promise. Now I have to leave with my team now, you go stay with your mother ok? You shouldn't run away from her so much." Kurenai again had to hide a snicker at her hanyou student's expense. HE was giving out advice of not running away? Heck she would give up a months salary to have him not get distracted and wander off during training!

Placing the little girl down he smiled his usual foxy grin while urging her back to her mother, gently pushing her along with a tail.

"Bye Naruto Fox! Come back to my house soon! We can play together ok?" Naruto smiled brightly as the little girl ran back to her mother, eagerly showing her the fox plushie he had given her.

Turning back away jogged up to join his team whom had kept walking without him, he didn't know how long it would be till he visited this village again, but he would find in many years time that young Kikyo would remember him forever.

The trip home seemed a fair amount longer then the trip to Kuzaku. There trip there had been done in under a day, and they had arrived in the late afternoon, but it was approaching night already and they weren't even quite three-quarters of the way there.

There was an eerie air of silence around Team 8. Usually there was fairly lively talk between the members, or even Naruto loudly proclaiming random things. But this time, there was just complete silence, all of the members seemingly distracted by their own thoughts. Naruto and Hinata still walked hand-in-hand, but there wasn't the happy atmosphere between them, both of them were rather upset internally at what had taken place in Kuzaku.

Naruto himself was both confused and severely worried, which wasn't in his nature normally as he was most often a very open minded and carefree individual, but right now his mind was very 'closed'.

'_I don't get it! That stupid fox! It makes no sense! Why the hell would he purposely try to take back the power I took from him, then when I was close to death give part of it back? He might as well just left me fight on my own without interfering! There was no point to taking it then giving it back! I… I have to speak with it. I have to know what the bastard wants.' _Naruto was beyond confused at the fox's actions, and he was deeply concerned that while using its power it had a 'measure' of control over him. He knew he had problems retaining is sense of self when he was using his yokai in rage, and that slightly frightened him… but the possibility of the fox taking over him scared him more then anything else in existence.

Hinata was in a similar state, although hers was more caused with the unfamiliarity of two things during her battle. The first was the way she had used her chakra, it was fine, it was unstable, but… it was there. She had in the heat of battle performed a partial amount of the technique she was working on, the technique from the Scroll of Seals that she had stolen at the behest of Mizuki, the technique that was theoretically impossible and precisely that: theory. But she saw it, the burst of chakra that held its form actually 'extended' from her body. The technique was exactly that, a was to have chakra form and flow outside of the body just like it would inside, but, having the control over it to manipulate its shape.

She had done just that, manipulated her chakra to form an invisible but lethal extension past her hand. She wasn't sure how she had managed it, but she had done it, and saw the deadly blade-like extension pierce straight through rock. Mulling over various ideas she looked at her hand and attempted to recreate it, but alas, the second thing that worried her mind blocked most of her concentration.

She hadn't killed Takashi herself. But, her actions had indivertibly led to his death. She had broken his armour, allowing Shino to order his Kikai to eat under it. It wasn't her that killed him, but she saw his death in a way she wished she hadn't, her eyes allowed her to witness his body tear itself apart at having his chakra drained. Such a manipulation over the mind, to force a genjutsu to control your mind to control your chakra in unrestricted ways was beyond foolish, and it had been what killed him when his chakra was gone. But it still hurt her heart to see someone suffer in such a manor, even if that person was an enemy. She didn't know what to think, she felt sick, she wanted to throw up at the idea that she had assisted in the murder of another human, despite that that particular human probably did deserve death… just not in such a way.

Shino was suffering from similar concerns. He had a special link with nature itself that allowed him to view the world completely different to most, and as such he understood the way nature worked with death and life. Things died to feed nature, so that nature might grow, and eventually die to feed new life. It was the way that it worked, and as such Shino had different view on the death of another human. But that didn't mean he didn't feel the pain from knowing _he_ caused the death.

To him, his beetle companions were apart of him, and if he killed even one of them it would feel like he killed apart of himself. But this felt the same, the criminal he had killed caused him to feel like apart of himself was ripped out. He wasn't good at emotions, it wasn't part of who he or his clan were, they were logical people by nature, choosing judgement over emotions, so this swirl of pain and guilt was confusing to him. If he had to describe it, then to him it would be that he felt 'pity' that the man was so far gone that death was the only option.

Kurenai could sense her team's emotional torment, and it disappointed her as a person that she had caused them to feel like this. Her reckless behaviour caused them to not only risk there lives, but to also experience causing death. While she knew it wasn't Naruto's first time, she knew he would be just as effected as the rest. She would under normal circumstances be relieved that her family was avenged, which she was to a degree, just not as much as she would have been had she done the dirty deed herself.

Suddenly jumping down from the trees she was leaping through with her team, she signalled them to follow her.

"Alright, our pace has slowed too much. It's getting to dark and I know we are all still exhausted. We shall set up camp here for the night and will leave early tomorrow. Naruto, go find us some firewood. Shino, can you set up the tents? And Hinata help me with the food once Naruto has the wood." She ordered out quickly, smiling slightly when they all nodded and set out to there respective jobs.

The genin of Team 8 didn't show it, but they were relieved that they could rest. They weren't on a busy schedule to get back, and they all felt like they needed to sleep on there various troubles.

Naruto was happy with his job, it was an easy one but good for his claws. Similar to how a cat would claw at bark to 'trim' them, he found the same use with trees. So cutting up small logs for firewood was an excellent task and helped relieve his troubled mind.

Shino also found his task a relief, as he could commune with his companions to construct the structures. And anytime he communed with them, he would always feel an odd sense of peace and inner-stability.

It wasn't long before the camp was set up, and Team 8 sat around a warm fire. A fire which flames were a bright blue curtesy of Naruto. There meal was a simply stew, made from random dried vegetables and a mix of simple spices. It was basic, but its warmth was a nice comfort to the team in there confused states.

Conversation was non-existent throughout the meal, each of them eating in silence. The only sounds to be heard were night crickets and the occasional low growl from Naruto, which was just him naturally reacting to whatever nightlife his sharp ears were detecting. It seemed he was territorial, a trait that Kurenai found absolutely hilarious, she had never heard of someone who was territorial like a dog. But then again, this was Naruto after all, and he wasn't a 'normal' human. It was eventually Kurenai who also broke the silence.

"I do know and understand what you three must be feeling right now…" She started off in a quite voice, a sad undertone suggested she could indeed empathise there pain. After all, she did just kill her own brother. "It's a pain, a sorrow filled guilt, a feeling that you did the wrong thing, and you wonder if it was what you really should have done. You wonder if there was another way. And if it makes you just as bad as them to take life. It's a sad nessesity in the life of a Shinobi, you will be forced to take life many many times to defend your nation and the innocent under our protection. Our life is not a glorious one, as there is no glory in death, no cause for celebration, no satisfaction that we should have. We simply murder…" It has harsh words to hear, and the three genin were looking at her with red eyes, showing that they were indeed hurting like she said.  
"But this pain is what we must feel. Its something that hurts us to remind us that it is wrong. It isn't human to take life, and because of that you feel inhuman pain for doing such. The pain will lesson in time, and eventually it will become easier to comprehend the idea of what we all must do. But it will never truly disappear. If the pain ever does disappear you will no longer be human, you will be what my brother's became: murderers." There was a long silence after her words. They weren't exactly overpowering, or awe-inspiring. More a reminder that this pain was normal, and that they wouldn't be normal if they didn't feel it. That thought alone made it a little easier, but still not enough.

"S-Sensei?..." Following the silence, surprisingly it was Hinata who spoke first. "Do… Do you f-feel ok with t-this? You also k-k-killed… And they people were your family."

Kurenai smiled at Hinata's question, she expected the one with the kindest heart to mention this first. Although she expected it, she didn't know how to answer straight away, her family was avenged, and she was finally free of her horrid 'brothers'. But she still couldn't find it in her heart to forgive them for what they did, and as such she didn't feel much remorse over killing them. "That's a difficult question to answer Hinata-chan, while I feel the pain of killing another human… I don't feel any special remorse over who they were. To me, after what they did, and what they have done through the years, I don't think of them as my family any longer. They were only criminals."

Silence prevailed again, everyone was a little shocked not at the words of there sensei, but more the emotionless tone she spoke in. She genuinely didn't care of there death. She sounded almost cold, and a hint of growing darkness could be seen within her eyes as she spoke to them. It was eerie to see the woman who cared so much for them, look so cold-hearted when speaking of the death of her own 'brothers'.

"Away from that subject, it will only cause us to lack sleep. Naruto-kun-" She suddenly changed the topic, addressing her Hanyou student. "-You beat Hidoukai and stopped him from killing that little girl you made friends with. When you reported to me after the battle you described you tricked him by using a transformation and an illusion of you laying on the ground dead. Care to show me this 'transformation' you spoke of?" She enquired with a smirk. She knew damn well what he did, but she wanted to lighten the mood in her team, and sadly for him her Hanyou student provided the best amusement.

Naruto immediately went wide eyes in fright at the request, images and threats of 'No Ramen' flashed through his mind as he desperately tried to come up with excuses.

"No. You will not fox yourself out of this one. What was the transformation you used Uzumaki?" She cut him off, her clear and demanding tone and use of his last name was evidence that she would not back down until he showed her.

Sighing loudly and mentally crying over the lose of his precious Ramen that he knew was coming, Naruto reached into his pocket to withdrawn a handful of reeds, and focused his chakra, drawing on his natural yokai to preform the jutsu. "Kitsune Art: True Transformation Jutsu!" Naruto called out, the gathered chakra pulsed out from him, and within seconds his form began to change.

The pulse of chakra caused a large amount of leaf-litter to cover most of the transformation, and by the time they all settled, in his stead stood the beautiful woman in a kimono he had tricked Hidoukai with.

Kurenai looked at him with a raised eyebrow. She clearly wasn't impressed at the boy's idea of the 'perfect looking woman' being that Naruto's transformation had more then ample breast size.

"Naruto." She stated plainly, and Naruto tensed himself for the punishment to come. "Which part of her is me?" Team 8 suddenly starred at Kurenai with a shocked expression. Was that a serious question? Hinata and Shino had only seen Naruto's 'female' form a few times, almost always when he was trying to prank someone, but neither of them assumed that characteristic of this form was traits from actually people. And they both looked at Naruto expectantly.

Suddenly feeling like a model on a catwalk Naruto for once in his life was actually a little shy and embarrassed. This was NOT what the jutsu was for, he was not a showcase woman. "Well um… A few things really… The shape of my eyes was a mixture of yours and Tohru-neechan's. My hands are yours, and the same as my nose. My face is a mixture of yours, Anko-neechan's, Tohru-neechan's, Yugao-neechan's and of... someone else... That's all I swear!" Naruto called out the last part as if he was going to be scolded. He probably was going to be, but Kurenai seemed a little happy with his description.

Kurenai would have normally scolded him, but she had read up on Kitsune and found it was natural for them to adapt a form of a woman to trick people with. The form of the woman would be made from various traits of women they found naturally beautiful and important to them. And to hear that her eyes were used in his 'jutsu', if you could call it that, was slightly flattering.

"Hmm… Ok. Well don't let me catch you in anything less then the kimono you are wearing now. I DON'T want to file another report about you trying to trick the shop vendors into giving you free food." Naruto rubbed the back of his head and laughed bashfully at that memory. It wasn't his fault that all the vendors were perverts. He was just taking advantage of it. "Oh! And Naruto-kun, I must ask. Who's are those?" She asked with a wicked grin while pointing to his ample chest area.

That was the exactly opposite too what Naruto wanted to be asked and he stuttered out many different excuses a thousand miles and hour. But in his nervousness and embarrassment at the sudden question his gaze flashed over to Hinata, specifically her _hidden_ ample chest area. It was only a quick glance, but it was more then enough for Team 8 to understand.

In response Kurenai and Shino glanced at Hinata, whom was busy burying her face into the lap trying to escape reality itself. Her blush literally glowing in the darkened light. She had no idea how Naruto could even closely guess her size, she had purposely wore large jackets and overcoats from sheer embarrassment at her growth, but somehow Naruto had managed to get a near perfect representation.

Naruto, in his embarrassment, lost control of the transformation and returned to normal, his gaze desperately trying to avoid Hinata. And the looks of accusation from his sensei.

"Naruto." She spoke in a stale tone like before. And this time he did expect a punishment. "I don't know how you know such a… 'measurement'. But let me make something very clear to you. If you show signs of being a pervert to Hinata-chan. I will not only forbid you from ever eating Ramen again, but I will inform Hiashi-sama exactly what you have been looking at about his daughter." Her tone was stale, but her words carried more then enough power behind them to make her point known.

Naruto knew his sensei hated perverts, but he was _completely_ horrified by that threat! He wasn't sure which was worse, the no Ramen ever, or informing Hiashi! And in response he unconsciously backed down and lowered himself to the ground. His tails laying flat while he also flattered his ears out. He KNEW he was in trouble now.

"Good, I'm glad my point is clear. Now, let us get some rest tonight, I'll have first watch, then I'll wake you up first Shino." Shino, who had been quiet through the whole ordeal and had somehow kept a straight face, simply nodded to his sensei's order before saying a quick goodnight to his team.

Hinata just stayed in her fetal position, desperately praying that now of all times she would faint. Funny enough her wish was granted the moment Naruto spoke to her in a shy and embarrassed voice. "Ah… Hinata-chan? I'm not… I mean-" Surprising her by speaking from directly next to her, he saw her leap up in surprise, before passing out with an 'eep' as soon as she made eye-contact with him.

"Hinata-chan? Hinata-chan?" Naruto yelled as he shook her gently, his tails having caught her mid fall.

Seeing that she wouldn't wake up, and catching sight of his sensei staring at him with cold eyes, he just gave up and placed her in her tent and tucked her in. But not before giving her a quick kiss on the check, he was atleast allowed to sneak kisses. He himself didn't usually sleep in the tents, the closed in space was something he couldn't stand, so he looked around for a nice tree and climbed it, wedging himself between a branch he tried to calm his mind to sleep.

Several hours later

'_What is this cold feeling?...' _Naruto's dreams were always vivid, often dark and nightmarish in nature, but it was rare that they were like this one… he was conscious, or thought he was, and he could feel something against his face and it felt wet, this dream was far to realistic compared to his normal nights. _'This feeling… I know this feeling… this cold… I… I know this place…'_ Naruto had been here only a few times before, to him, this place was a cursed reminder of the reason he was hated. And that 'cursed' feeling was only reinforced by the eternal cold that seemed to fill the place.

Naruto's eyes flittered open as he 'awoke' in his mind. He gasped at the sheer cold of the sewer he was within, causing him to cough as he swallowed a small amount of the water he laid in. "Ack! Damn fox! He better not be bringing me to the place! I wanted to speak with him about him taking my chakra! But not like this!" Naruto cursed loudly, slamming a fist into the stone wall in frustration. He _hated_ this place and talking to the fox. He wanted a nice nights sleep, not a night of verbal insults between him and his prisoner.

Knowing that rest would not come to him unless he dealt with the reason the fox had called him here, Naruto began the long walk through his sewer of a mind. The path was long, but severely shortened by his uncanny ability to navigate these halls, while at the same time, avoiding any small glowing spheres he could, particularly so for bright red ones. The memories locked in this place were another reason he called this place cursed, as they all seemed to exist just to torture him when he found them.

It wasn't long before the eerie silence was replaced by deep, powerful, yet laboured breaths. While the sight of endless halls was replaced with gaseous clouds of red yokai. It seemed that the older he got, the more this chakra filled the sewer. Part of Naruto was afraid that the seal was weakening, while the other part of him said it was his yokai chakra that his body made, or a mix of that and what he stole from the fox.

Finally walking down the last long corridor Naruto entered the great hall containing the gate that bound his prisoner. Starring deeply into the dark endless depths past the gate, Naruto could only just make out the form of his prisoner, breathing deeply and weakly as usual. He waited just infront of the gate for a few minutes, but still not hearing his prisoner talk he figured he would start there arguments.

"Hey! Stupid Fox! What the hell did you bring me here for?" Naruto didn't expect a normal answer, and was thus unsurprised when all he got immediately was a rage imbued roar that caused him to fly back a good few meters, and shake the entire foundations of this sewer.

"**INSOLENT HUMAN! I WOULD RIPE YOU LIMB FROM LIMB FOR SUCH DISRESPECT IF I COULD!**" Naruto just stood his ground against the foxes continued grows and roars, matching it with his own, showing his defiance of the elder kitsune.

"I wont listen or respect you ever fox! So why did you bring me here? And why the hell were you so set on stopping me from using your chakra in that last fight, then willing to let me us it later? That's just stupid!" The fox paused for a moment, almost like it was thinking very carefully on how to put its answer.

"**I don't need to explain myself to **_**you**_**. But your continual defiance and guts of talking with me still amuses me, so I will explain a little.**" The fox uncurled itself slowly, before walking over to the cage doors and lowering itself so that's its great red eyes were looking directly at Naruto.

"**I wasn't willing to have what remains of my chakra taken by you. And you take more and more each time you loose control of yourself so recklessly, you were taking FAR too much of MY chakra so I simply stopped you from taking it. The reason in the end I relinquished the complete hold on it was because your body was not producing its own yokai when I took back **_**all**_ **of mine. That is why you felt weaker then you usually are. Pathetic. You are unworthy of sharing a Kitsune's blood." **The fox snickered to itself when it's jailor growled viciously at him, and that snicker turned into full laughter when Naruto tried to 'punish' it for its comment but blasting it with a huge ball of Fox Fire.

"**Please, your worthless incarnations of our arts are nothing to me. You cannot use the full extent of your powers. You are still too weak."**

"SHUT UP! I didn't get dragged here by you to be insulted pointlessly! So why did you even bring me here?" Naruto was getting really pissed off at the fox REALLY quick. He hated talking to it, but worse he hated to talk with it and just get insulted about being weak the whole time.

"**I wouldn't call you here if I could help it. Your entire existence is an insult to me. Besides, I didn't call you here. **_**He did.**_**" **The great fox pointed with one of its claws to behind Naruto, before slowly retreating further back in its cage, a different, yet still deep and dark growl emanating from it.

Spinning around at the foxes words, Naruto was completely in shock at the figure that stood before him. A figured, robed in a body long black cloak adorned with red clouds, glowing Sharingan eyes and a cold exterior. None other then Itachi Uchiha stood before him, his face completely unreadable.

"Hello Naruto-kun, it has been a long time." He had aged in the past few years, his face seeming having darkened a little, his 'feminine' features having shallowed a little to give me a much more mature face. But, his calm voice had remained the same as Naruto remembered.

"I… Itachi… Its you." Naruto explained, still shocked from seeing his older friend again. "What… How are you here? And why?"

"I was passing through this area with my college on a mission. I could feel your chakra a mile away and so was curious to see your development. I must say, despite your slight reliance on the Nine Tail's chakra you have become very strong indeed. The reason I am here is its easier to talk with you without your sensei catching me, plus I felt it was worth a quick chat with the Nine Tail's while I checked the seal." Itachi easily noticed the small change in Naruto's face at that last comment, and replied knowing the coming question. "No, don't worry the seal is undamaged. Your body's powerful chakra has been keeping it in check."

Naruto was pleased with the answer, however, silence pervaded the two for what seemed like forever, it had been so many years since they had even seen each other, so conversation seemed a little awkward.

"Itachi-niisan… It's… It's good to see you again. It has been so long… Are you coming back to Konoha?" Naruto was almost certain of the answer, but that didn't mean he couldn't be hopeful.

"No Naruto-kun, I cannot ever return to Konoha. To save my clan, and to save my home, I had to become a traitor in there eyes. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make for everyone I loved." Itachi was perhaps the only person Naruto knew who could say such things with such a plain tone, his emotions completely unreadable. But Naruto knew more then to rely on sight, he could practically smell Itachi's happiness at seeing him.

"Speaking of my clan, how are they? And how is my little brother? I was a little disappointed to not see him in your team."

"Agh! The stupid teme is doing fine. He is Clan Head now and the Uchiha family is doing very well. Except he is so annoying! He always fights with me and has this 'cool attitude' that drives me insane! When I get back to Konoha I'm going to tell him all about my super cool mission! He got a C-Rank mission too, but ours turned out way better then his did, I know it!" Itachi paused for a moment at Naruto's outburst, his eyes actually a little wide in surprise, before he did something even Naruto had never expected: he laughed.

"Haha, so it seems you two are still good friends then?" Itachi asked rhetorically with a knowing smile. Such an outburst could only mean they had remained as strong friends, and even stronger rivals.

"Pass him a message when you get back, tell him his big brother misses him. And, if you can, give him a flick on the forehead for me. Although… with your strength be careful." Itachi smiled briefly and laughed again. It was so uncharacteristic to see him laugh and smile, Naruto was almost tempted to think this was all a dream. But even he could see on the older shinobi's face that he really was happy to see him again.

"Heh, I'll flick him alright! I'll knock the teme into next week!" Naruto proclaimed loudly, pumping a fist in excitement at the very idea. Although his excitement suddenly turned serious when a question surfaced in his mind. "So… Itachi-niisan, what have you been doing? Where have you been for these years?"

"I have been doing a few missions around Konoha mostly. I get 'special' missions delivered to me from the Hokage still. Cause while I may be a 'traitor' in the people's eyes, the Hokage still knows I am loyal. However, I recently joined a group called the Akatsuki, I can't tell you much about them now. But I promise I will when time deems it necessary." Naruto had never heard of such a group, but if they were good enough that even Itachi joined them then they would have to be a very powerful group of ninja indeed! He couldn't wait to meet them.

Itachi just smiled at the enthusiasm he could see in blond hanyou, he wanted to talk with his young friend a little longer, as there was so much that he had missed in both his and Sasuke's life. But that desire vanished as soon as he felt a chakra spike nearby. "Forgive me Naruto-kun, but your sensei is approaching. I must leave. I promise to see you and Sasuke again soon. And tell Hinata-chan I am interested to see the technique she is developing, it will be a marvel to witness such a breakthrough in chakra manipulation." Itachi's voice returned to his usual emotionless tone, and he bowed slightly before turning away and walking out of the large hall. But before he disappeared into the dark, he turned his head around to look at Naruto one last time.

"It's good to see you again Naruto-kun. It is good to see you are doing well." He said with a smile. Before disappearing into the darkness, a small glint of happiness in his eyes was the last thing Naruto saw.

Naruto was thrilled to having seen Itachi again, although it was a shame to see him leave so soon. Deciding to atleast be happy with seeing him once again, Naruto turned to ask the fox a few more things before he too left, but it seemed Itachi was indeed correct about his sensei being close, and he was awoken with a start.

"Naruto-kun, your turn for the watch."

A huge red gate rose in the distance, the stony path before them suddenly seeming so much shorter now that they could see the great gates of there home. It was Team 8's first time outside the village like that, and while there mission there and back had been less then a week, they couldn't believe the relief they felt at seeing there home in the distance.

"Alright! Were finally back! Just in time for some Ramen cause I'm starving!" Naruto exclaimed with his usually enthusiasm. Forgetting that Hinata had been cuddle up close to him she was bounced around with him due to the grip of his tails causing her to eep in surprise.

Kurenai just shook her head with a smile, her hanyou student would never change, she was curtain of that. He would just always be a hyperactive knucklehead.

"Calm down Naruto-kun. We still need to file the mission report and discuss with the Hokage about the trouble we faced." To most it would have sounded like a normal comment for a sensei to say to her/his students, but Kurenai specifically said it to simply mess with her student.

"Wai-what? No please! I don't want to listen to another of the Old Man's lectures! Can't we all get Ramen first then go file the mission report? Im starving!..." Kurenai just laughed at his begging outburst, the baby-kit eyes were probably over the top, but she didn't fall for them.

"I'm only playing Naruto-kun. You three head off and get something to eat, I can file the report. Besides, I need to talk to the Hokage about a few things that are probably left unheard by you all… for now." Her words were cryptic, but her tone was cheery. So that was all Naruto needed to hear before he'd already started running towards the main gate, dragging poor Hinata along with him. Although… she didn't really mind considering she was being carried all snuggled up in his tails.

Shino couldn't do anything but sigh before dismissing himself politely from his sensei and following his team.

"- And another thing, I'm getting really sick of your lazy attitude Shikamaru! And you too Choji! All you both do all day is lazy around and eat! I mean seriously Shikamaru, when was the last time you actually put effort into training with Asuma-sensei? And Choji look at you! You should really start thinking of going on a diet! Cause you are getting really fa-" It wasn't an uncommon sight to see Ino Yamanaka yelling at her two male teammates, she was by nature a loud and fiery girl, but her two teammates laziness frustrated her beyond belief.

She only really lectured them because she genuinely wanted her team to be strong, and in the short time they had spent as a team she could honestly consider them close friends. Not as close as Hinata and Naruto were to her, but still very close nonetheless. That being said, despite her constant lectures there was certain things even she knew she shouldn't say, and that be the current word she had _almost_ slipped out by accident: calling Choji fat.

Most times she usually caught herself and stopped speaking, but she was particularly furious this time as they had _both_ skipped out on training today, so she had to cop her sensei's irritancy at there tardiness. This time however, she was stopped just before the 'life threatening word' by a certain hanyou flying passed her. Or more appropriately: with her.

Shikamaru and Choji were trying there best to ignore there female teammates screaming voice, but she was able to reach decibels in her screams that should have been illegal and as such neither of them could do much but attempt to ignore her screams, hoping, praying that she would just shut up.

As if there prayers were answered, a powerful boom of violent chakra nearby signified a certain hanyou they both knew was speeding in this direction. And equally loud voice accompanying it.

"INO-CHAN! We have to go get ramen! Come with us!" Naruto called out to his blond friend as he sped towards them at speeds enough to pick up huge dust behind him. His cheerful and carefree voice noting he really didn't seem to know the mess he was making as he ran, nor care much when one of his tails snatched Ino up as he ran passed, taking her with him.

"PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW! NARUTO? NARUTO ARE YOU LISTENING? LET ME GO YOU BIG IDIOT! NARUTOOOOOOOOO!"

That was the scene Shikamaru and Choji were left with. They had been standing there one minute getting screeched at, the next a huge gust passed them and there teammate was suddenly gone, screaming at Naruto whom had suddenly taken her with him in his reckless running.

"Thanks Naruto, I owe you one. Really." Shikamaru muttered out with a smirk, turning his head to the clouds to begin his favourite pastime of watching clouds, in peace and quiet. Choji himself sighing with a relieved smile before joining his best friend.

"You know, Naruto-kun has always been kind of strange, but its times like this where I really want to share my chips with him." Shikamaru could only nod in agreement while laying down in the middle of the street, choosing to take this as the blessing it was.

"Ahhh… She's gone for now." Shikamaru said in a tired, yet relieved tone.

Naruto continued to run towards his favourite place in the whole world, aside from his angel's arms ofcourse, Ichiraku Ramen. Completely undeterred from his slight exhaustion from the long trip home, and by a screaming Ino pounding him on the head.

"LET ME GO NARUTO! IF YOU DON'T PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT I'LL IMPRINT IN EVERYONE'S MIND EVERY SINGLE STUPID THING YOU HAVE DONE SINCE YOU WERE 5!" Ino screamed at her hanyou friend, throwing her fists forward and smacking him across the back of the head as hard as she could. When he still wouldn't stop she had to resort to Hinata's help. But turning back and seeing the hyuga heiress happily snuggling to his tails with a small blush on her face, Ino knew the girl would be no help at all.

Ignoring his blond friend, Naruto just continued to run. He hadn't had Ichiraku Ramen in almost a week! And that for him was a record! An onrush of scents hit him as he turned a corner sharply, the intense blend of herbs and spices. And the particular scent of pork and noodle broth caused him to burst forward in an increased hurry, practically drooling as he drew closer to his heavenly ramen shop.

Ichiraku and Ayame were slowly bringing out a large stock of supplies from the back of the shop. Nearing the evening business always picked up as various villagers and shinobi would always stop by for a bowl or two of ramen for dinner. Business hadn't been particularly high over the last few days, mainly because there main, and favourite, young customer was on a mission. Which meant that they only had the usual customers minus the blond hanyou's friends. Being that Naruto not only bought _ALOT_ of ramen from them on a normal day, but he also brought along all his friends, so whenever he was present they would always have more then enough patronage.

Ichiraku was slowly stirring the shoyu base broth when a tingle ran up his spine, a creepy yet excited smile quickly appearing on his aged face. He may not have been a shinobi and thus didn't have any ability to sense chakra. But _noone_ needed any such ability to detect chakra when it came to Naruto, the young hanyou practically suffocated his surroundings in it.

"Ayame-chan! Quick! Get everything we need for tonight times 10! Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan are back from there mission." Ichiraku said excitedly. The boy was practically family to himself and his daughter. Everyone knew that he spent enough time here to be considered family.

It wasn't even a few seconds later that Naruto came running around the corner, barrelling towards the restaurant at speeds barely even visible. When he was close enough to the shop he leapt up, and from years of practice angled Hinata and Ino either side of him with his tails. When they landed he hit the ground hard, his feet tingling from the impact. But he cushioned the landing for Hinata and Ino, they both were placed gently on the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL NARUTO! I'LL KILL YO-" Ino's hand was grasping around Naruto's throat as soon as she could move again, her rage at his actions visible in her furious eyes. But even before she could get a decent grip around she was stopped as soon as she saw a certain someone. "SASUKE-KUN!"

In an instant she dropped Naruto, whom fell straight to the ground with a thud, and rushed over to enthusiastically greet her crush. "Sasuke-kun! Your back from your mission! How was it? Did you battle enemy ninja?" Sasuke, who had only just felt his bestfriend and rival's chakra, had left his team after they arrived to catch up about there separate missions. He had some very interesting stories to share of his, and he knew that Naruto always did too, and so had come looking for him to see if he could outdo his hanyou friend.

But he hadn't even turned fully around from the alleyway to see the ramen shop before he was practically pounced on by a certain long haired admirer. Sasuke tried his best to keep his calm exterior, but as she rambled on and on and attatch herself to his arm he found his patience waning quite quickly. She was like a female version of Naruto, he could have sworn they were related sometimes.

With a grunt of annoyance he just let it go and left Ino to cling on his arm, but he continued ignoring her while walking towards Ichiraku Ramen, stopping just infront of Naruto.

"Hey Moron" He greeted casually. Eliciting a small growl from Naruto while he was picking himself up off the ground.

"When are you actually going to just say hi to me like a normal person you bastard?" Naruto fumed in response, his hands curling open and his tails stiffening. Sasuke just smirked at the overly predictable reaction. His friend was always far to easy to rile up, but that made it more amusing for him nonetheless.

"Easy, when you stop being a moron all the time, I wont call you a moron. Kitsune are wise and knowledgeable. A trait you obviously don't share dobe. Did the fox keep that part to himself?" Sasuke's smirk continued to grow after that, although it took a great deal of restraint not to burst out in laughter.

However, his comment was perhaps a little too far over the line. Being that Ino let go of him, and her and Hinata stepped back towards Ichiraku Ramen. Mentioning the fox so casually often _really_ set off Naruto's temper.

Reacting on instinct and from what he expected from Naruto, Sasuke swerved to the side to avoid a rather fast claw swipe, one that was aimed for his head. He could barely see Naruto attempt to swipe again, his eyes being distracted by avoiding three tails reaching for him. His spars with Naruto were always good, but he would admit that it was troublesome to follow all his movements and so pulled out a new secret of his.

Naruto crouched down a little, preparing to grab Sasuke's ankles with his tails before slashing upwards. But a certain something caught his eyes and he immediately jumped back.

"Ah! So you finally got your Sharingan eh teme?" Sasuke nodded with a smirk in response. In replace of his usual midnight black eyes, two blood red pupils with two tomoe in each were revealed. The tomoe spinning quickly occasionally. "Heh, about time teme! You call me a moron but it took you THIS long to get your Sharingan? Your brother had his when he was eight, and how old are _you_ now?" Naruto asked rhetorically with a mocking tone. Sasuke scoffed at the implied insult of he being lesser in skill then his older brother. But he didn't have time to do anything about it as an idea had already sprung into Naruto's devious mind.

Naruto's normally cheery face disappeared quickly, in replace a grin of pure mischief grew. His whole face literally changing to allow a giant evil fox grin. "Hey Sasuke? The Sharingan memorises everything it sees yes?"

Sasuke knew his best friend well. That smile was only one he got when he was preparing for a _really_ good prank and se he was extremely cautious of his surroundings as he answered. "Yes it does. Although a fully matured Sharingan will record whatever it sees into memory far better then an unmatured. But I can still copy and memories a lot of things."

Naruto didn't answer back to that, instead he just flashed through a quick serious of handsigns before the area was suddenly covered in smoke. The smoke appeared from nowhere, covering the entire market district in less then a few seconds and was extremely dense. Sasuke could barely see his hand infront of his face, but his Sharingan could see the chakra in the air so he knew it was one of his friend's illusions. Another quick pulse of chakra was felt within the smoke, a pulse that Sasuke recognised as Naruto transforming his form to a full human form.

Strangely, the smoke that appeared so suddenly began to dissipate rapidly. Until a few seconds later it was completely clear, Sasuke had yet to see his friend perform that illusion. But as it dissipated, asking him about the technique was the _last_ thing on his mind, for in Naruto's place, stood a certain woman he knew all too well: Naruto had transformed into Sasuke's mother, and was completely naked.

Sasuke froze momentarily, his Sharingan doing its usual task and recording everything they see into permanent memory, forever burning the horrifying sight of his own mother nude into his mind. In an instant he deactivated his Sharingan and closed his eyes, while rubbing them and shouting all sorts of painful obscenity. Such an image would haunt him forever! How could he ever look at his own mother again? He felt like he had to puke!

"What the fuck was that? How dare you you moron! That is disgusting! ARGH! It feels like I have to burn my own eyes out! I'll never be able to forget that! I'll kill you for using my mother's image in such a perverted manor!"

Sasuke lunged forward quickly and grabbed Naruto by the throat. Naruto had almost immediately changed his form back after Sasuke had seen, mostly through his loss of control over the transformation from bursting out in laughter at his rival/bestfriend's face of sheer horror.

"I'LL SKIN YOU ALIVE AND USE YOUR TAILS AS A CLAN ORNAMENT YOU DAMN FOX!" Sasuke screamed while shaking Naruto as hard as he could, but the hanyou's continuous laughter just pissed him off even more and so he quickly turned to thumping him hard in the gut repetitively. Naruto actually flinched hard at the punches and ceased his manic laughter, only to strike back with his own punch and to trip him with a tail. But as Sasuke began to fall, he grabbed hold of the hanyou's left ear, and dragged him down with him.

And just like that the two of them erupted into a brawl. Not a sparing match with rules, decorum, and technique. No, this was just a primitive brawl where anything was allowed and everything was done. Naruto even at one time bite down on Sasuke's arm while they continued to fight on the dirt road, rolling around like two immature kids.

Hinata and Ino just stood to the sidelines near Ichiraku, completely at a loss for what just happened. One minute they were greeting each other normally, then Naruto turned into a naked version of Sasuke's mum, now they were brawling on the road like a couple of children.

Both Hinata and Ino jumped noticeably when they heard a resolute voice sound behind them. "I suggest we just make our orders and try to ignore them and enjoy the evening. They will be at this for quite awhile." It was Shino who spoke up. Apparently he had caught up to them and was sitting patiently on a seat at Ichiraku, his face emotionless and his eyes hidden by his black sunglasses. But Hinata could easily tell that the Aburame was clearly perturbed by the senseless brawl.

Ignoring the two brawlers as they kicked and screamed at each other while wrestling, Hinata and Ino nodded with a smile and joined Shino, just because Sasuke and Naruto were being children didn't mean they had to be. Placing there orders cheerfully, Hinata and Shino started detailing there recently mission, to which Ino was more then eager to listen to, having been completely bored the last week with stupid low rank D missions.

Hokage Tower

"Hmm… So you are sure that's everything Kurenai-chan?" Sarutobi asked with a slight sign at the stack of paperwork that was just handed to him. His pipe, now suddenly forgotten, was just resting to the side. He was half considering just moving the pipe over a bit so that it destroyed the horrible stack before him, but that wouldn't be proper of him despite how tempting it was.

"Yes sir, everything is there and accounted for. The mission report, liability statements, status declaration, genin participation levels, analysis reports and… and a signed and completed bounty certificate." Kurenai's voice cracked slightly at the last one, a thing that Sarutobi noticed easily.

Seeing the strong and sturdy woman before him even waver for a second was a shock to him, and his face softened to that commonly seen on most grandparents, his paperwork forgotten, he looked at Kurenai with a gentle and caring manor.

"Kurenai-chan, are you going to be alright? I know you said you were okay, but I can quite easily sense that you are not. You might have been able to fool your students, but nothing gets past an old man like me. I can organise a few days off for you if you would like? Your team will be looked after in the meantime if you need it." For a moment Kurenai looked at him with her usual stern face, and went to decline his offer, but it seemed she wasn't as ok as she first thought.

Sarutobi watched the strong woman before him just glace at him with a smile, her face was calm and her eyes sharp. But small tears slowly began to well up in those eyes, and her face started to drop like she had stabbed through the heart, before she erupted into tears. She tried to hold them back, she didn't want to look weak before her leader, but she could stop herself, and she had to lean her hands against his desk.

She didn't even sense him move, but suddenly Sarutobi was up and standing next to her, his kind arms wrapped around her and pulling her close. Sarutobi knew very well that it was the teachings of the village that no shinobi should ever show emotion, because emotion clouded the mind and caused distractions, which could lead to failure of a mission… or worse. But even so, Kurenai had told him all about her family, her brothers, and the events that happened during the recent mission, the poor woman had been forced to not only murder her own brother, but she also had her students murder the remaining two.

Murder may seem like a strong and evil word, but it is correct, the brothers were 'necessarily killed' and any intent to kill another human IS murder. And now, Kurenai's entire family and clan was now no more bar her. She was alone in the world, she had no more family with her. And as much as she claimed that she hated her brothers, which was true he could tell. They _were_ still her family, and killing ones own family, and having your students do the same, always will hurt the heart of even the coldest of people.

"Its ok Kurenai-chan… it is ok to cry at times like this." His words were gentle and he just held her closer when her tears renewed themselves, he could literally _feel_ the hurt she felt emanate from her, it was like all of her years of locked up emotions were suddenly released. She had obviously needed to let loose for a long long time. It might have seemed strange to some, to see there hokage holding a broken woman as she cried. But to him it was just natural, everyone would be there for a family member when they cried, and this whole village was his family, and each of them he felt were his own children/grandchildren.

It seemed like hours passed, but Kurenai just kept crying into her leader's long robes, all the while he refused to let her go. She needed someone to cry on. There were still a few things that needed to be discussed about her team, but those things could wait till later. It wasn't long until Kurenai's tears began to ebb away, but only when she started to drift into a deep sleep, a 'peaceful' sleep. Being that now, with all her pent up emotions drained away, she was at last, finally at peace.

Sarutobi smiled hearing her soft breathing. Knowing she had finally fallen asleep he moved her to the soft couch on to the side of his office and returned to his desk. Pressing the intercom he called for his secretary to bring in a warm sheet for Kurenai, before begrudgedly picking up the first item of paperwork infront of him. He mildly wondered if Kurenai would be less cold towards people now that she was free of her past's horrors. She was kind enough to her team and towards him, but compared to most other Jonin she wasn't very open towards people, often keeping her true feelings and thoughts to herself.

He smiled truly happily for the first time in weeks at the very thought of that being true, for it would mean that another member of his ever growing family would be happy. His happy moment was disturbed however, by a particularly loud yet playful scream/order.

"ALRIGHT YOU TWO BRATS! CUT THIS OUT IMMEDIATELY!"

Ichiraku Ramen

The brawl between Naruto and Sasuke has escalated exponentially since it started. Admittably they hadn't caused any damage to any surrounding buildings, but they might have had they kept it up. There brawl even attracted the attention of a certain woman garbed in a long tan trench who was more then wanting to 'play' along with them.

"Hehehe well… what have we here Hinako?" An excited and playful voice questioned towards the large purple and green snake that was dragged casually over her shoulders. Anko stood casually eating dango with one hand, taking with her snake companion while multiple pairs of snakes stretched from out of her sleeves of the other hand, wrapping around and binding the two boys. Separating them and dangling them in the air upside down.

Hinako the snake just slithered off her mistress's shoulders, slowly inching towards the two boys. "I don't know Misssstresss… I don't like the one with the ssssswirling eyesss. But this one-" she gestured to Naruto with her tongue, choosing to move towards him quickly and ignoring Sasuke. "-I quite like the ssssscent of thissss one. Can I eat him Misssstressss? He ssssmellssss delissssiousss! I haven't eaten fox for many monthssss."

Naruto growled viciously at the snake looking up at him, something that only seemed to excite the snake more the scare it. Looking at Anko, Naruto's growl only increased as did his struggling when he saw her contemplating the snakes request.

"If you let that slimy snake eat me I'll make sure to ripe her apart from the inside out Anko-neechan! Then I'll do the same to the rest of your disgusting snakes!" Naruto was more trying to goad her into letting her guard down in an angry response to his disrespect to her snakes.

Normally such a thing would work, but Anko was currently in a really happy mood. As was shown by the happy smile all over her face. She had just been informed that she was proctoring this years Chunin exams again! And she had just binged on dango, so she was currently ecstatic. Instead of getting angry with him, she just casually walked over to him and placed a yellow rubber squeaky toy in between the snakes that bound him, and did the same to Sasuke. Then walking over the a park bench she called Hinako over to her.

"Oh no you little brat." She said in her usual creepy 'overcheerful voice'. "Hinako is to sweet and beautiful to do that do. Besides, I wouldn't let her eat genin anyway, they taste gross." Naruto was about to say something in his defence, but the snakes around him suddenly constricted then relaxed again, causing the squeaky toy to squeak.

The first time she did that she giggled, then she made Sasuke squeek. Then Naruto, then Sasuke. Until she was squeaking them all so fast that she was a literally role of laughs on the ground. "AHAHAHAHA! YOU BRATS ARE THE BEST TOYS EVER!" She proceeded to laugh very Anko like until suddenly she stopped, and sat up straight. Almost like she had a complete personality change she was serious as a bee. Which would be weird for a normal person, but Anko was far from normal.

Moving her hand slightly, the snakes around Sasuke brought him over to her, suspending him right above her. "You! Bratty Uchiha. I have a few things I want from you." She spoke calmly, dispite the small evil grin that appeared on her face, and that the snakes around Naruto were still making him 'squeak'. Which was still amusing to no end.

Sasuke gulped visibly at that, his Sharingan eyes reactivating in subconscious defence. Naruto's sisters all scared him in there own little way. But it was Anko who genuinely worried him. Naruto and Hinata got along with her alright, but personally Sasuke would avoid her at all costs if he could. And the fact that she wanted something from _him_ instead of her little brother was even more horrifying.

"Your sensei, Kakashi Hatake. He's cute. I like him and his rather… 'impressive' talents. I want _you_ to convince him to take me out on a date." She stated plainly, seemingly more occupied by the dango stick in her hand.

Sasuke exhaled loudly upon hearing what she actually wanted from him. "Is that all? Here I was expecting you to request to torture me like you do to the Dobe. Sorry Anko-san, I don't think I can help yo-ARGH!" Anko doesn't usually take well to being denied what she requests, and so she simply commanded Hinako to bite his arm.

"Hmm? You were saying Uchiha? Oh! And by the way…. Hinako-chan is very poisoness!" Anko is probably the only person in the entire Konoha who would sound like a excited and giddy schoolgirl at a snake poisoning someone. She seemed to be so happy when she explained that little terrifying detail. Sasuke was completely disturbed by her attitude to having poisoned him and quickly apologised and promised to speak with his sensei.

"Hehehe see! Wasn't that easy? You Uchiha are so much more agreeable since… well… you know. Anyway! I must be going! I have a lot more random people to scare tonight. I'll see you all again soon. Bye Hinata-chan, Ino-chan! Shino-kun!" Anko called out happily, completely disregarding the two boys dangling in the air, before her, Hinako, and the snakes binding Naruto and Sasuke disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto and Sasuke hit the ground hard. And both complained about 'crazy snake lady's'. Although Sasuke more freaking out by the fact she hadn't given him an antidote or antivenom. Naruto was equally furious, and his eyes were dilating slightly while he tried desperately to keep himself calm. He DIDN'T like being her squeaky toy!

He was about to shout and scream abuse about his sister, until he realised he was holding something within his clawed hand. Curiously looking he saw a small bottle with a snake sticker on it, and a small letter. Knowing the bottle was the antidote he chucked it to Sasuke before reading the letter.

'_Dear Little Brother,_

_ I do so love when we play like this! I certain miss those times before you and Hinata joined the academy when we could play like this more often. Anyway, I wanted to say congratulations on completing your first C-Rank mission! You know I'm not too good with mushy gooey words of fluffy stuff, but I am proud of you and that you came into my life. _

_With Love, _

_Anko_

_P.S. Ewww… gross… I think I just made myself throw up at my own words.'_

In an instant Naruto's rage subsided. Anko sometimes certainly drove him up the wall, but it was times like this that he truly remembers how much he means to her, and her to him.

"N-Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san. Your r-ramen is ready. We o-ordered for you b-both." Hinata called out softly, and in an instant Naruto was sitting next to her, his tails wrapping lovingly around her, and one around his ramen bowl, lifting it up to his mouth.

"ALRIGHT! Ramens the best!" Naruto called out before downing the entire bowl, which would have surprised anyone who didn't know him that doing such a thing was physically possible. "Another ramen old man! Make it a double pork!"

As soon as the new bowl was placed in front of him he went to do the same. But Ino clobbered him before he could. "What is wrong with you? Just eat it like a normal person!" To which Naruto just fake cried while trying to suck the ramen out of the bowl and avoid more hits.

Somehow he managed to avoid or block all of her hits AND eat all the ramen, and even fighting Ino he made the order for the next bowl.

Everyone just laughed at Naruto's over-enthusiasm for the ramen, and even Sasuke laughed when he too came over to sit down. Although his laugh was a bit shaky, still fearing that the antidote was fake. He wouldn't put it passed Anko to give him a fake antidote.

When everything settled down, and the friends just began to enjoy there meal and evening together that all of them realised on how much they had missed being able to do this. To just be able to sit down and eat together, and talk about whatever came to there mind.

Ino in particular probably enjoyed the night the best, being that she was not enjoying her life in her team as much as she had hoped, and her mother just seemed colder and colder to her as the days went by. Her team were friends, but not like how Naruto and Hinata were to her. She missed being able to hang out all the time like they use to. And just the realisation on how much she missed being with them made a small tear drop from her eye.

Although that didn't stop her from bopping Naruto's head frequently when he got too loud and boisterous. Or when he got into an argument with Sasuke.

Many of there other friends joined throughout the night, although things were a little difficult when Kiba and Akamaru showed up. But with enough calm persuasion on Hinata's part, the two had calmed down simply ignored each other. Even Neji showed up, and he brought with him his two teammates, whom Naruto and Hinata both got along with well.

Despite the happy night, there was a certain 'dark thought' that kept Naruto and Hinata from having a completely happy time. A certain day was only two days away, a day that brought them both pain. But they did there best to ignore it, as they have for the longest time, and instead just continue to enjoy themselves with company of friends, each other, and nice Ramen.


End file.
